Education 30 Final
In the article, “Gains and Losses: New Forms of Texts, Knowledge, and Learning,” author, Gunther Kress addresses some of the gains and losses that has occurred as a result of a shift in communication. He discusses the after-effects of the decline in writing and the modern fascination with multimodal communication. Some of the gains of multimodal communication that Kress mentions are the increase of interpretations and the larger impact it has on social movements. Kress (2005) begins by stating that writing allows for limited interpretation because of the rules that are already in place (p. 7). For example, words already have meaning, as in definitions, so there is little room to reinterpret what a word might mean when
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With multimodal communication, there is no order and no clear meaning. However, Kress (2005) argues that “design focuses forward” and even though we might not have all the resources and training to effectively use multimodal representations, we need need to adjust to the “contingencies of this environment now and the demands made” (Kress, 2005, p. 20). Considering how much society relies on visual representations of information nowadays, it is important to make the move from textual communication to multimodal communication despite the ramifications that happen as a result of this …show more content…
It serves as an example of why visuals are so important nowadays. Multimodal representations does not only represent what is on the canvas, but also so much more with the use of color, spatial representation, frame, and size of objects (Kress, 2005, p. 14). Kress mentions how multimodal communication plays a crucial role in social change in our world (Kress, 2005, p. 6). The video, “How Facebook Changed the World,” shares how people of Arab nations are using social media to overthrow their oppressive leaders (How Facebook Changed the World, 2011). The video mentions how in the past, events such as the suicide of the fruit seller, would have been hidden from the media. However, with social media, people of these oppressive nations were able to share their experiences and thoughts not only within their nation, but outside nations as well. The revolution initiated by the suicide and a video recorded of a protest afterwards, drew people together, giving more voice and power to people that were previously voiceless. Social media provides a platform that gives power to the
Clive Thompson is a journalist, blogger and writer. He mainly focuses his writing on science and technology but this one chapter from his book Smarter than you think, “Public thinking,” has put a spin on writing and technology. Multiple times he talks about writing in many different forms. For example, he speaks of writing on blogs, on internet short stories (or fan fiction novels), in schools, in studies, and even on a regular basis. Thomson is trying to explain to his readers how writing, and the sharing of information across the internet, is beneficial to our society and ones well-being. In my readings of Thompson’s excerpt, I will examine Thomson’s examples and show how they are relevant and that it is beneficial.
While preparing for one of his college lectures, Dennis Baron, a professor and linguistics at the University of Illinois, began playing with the idea of how writing has changed the world we lived in and materials and tools we use in everyday life. This lecture slowly transitioned into “Should Everybody Write?” An article that has made many wonder if technology has made writing too easy for anyone to use or strengthens a writer's ability to learn and communicate their ideas. Baron uses rhetorical strategies in his article to portray to his audience his positive tone, the contrast and comparison of context and his logical purpose.
The issues of how technology is influencing our nation today has come into play with social media and surveillance in our personal lives. We use twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. to express our opinions on things and as a voice to inform people on what’s going on in today’s society. We have learned how to use the tools we’ve been given to change our lives forever; our government has access to all of our personal information in exchange for our protection against terrorism. In Bijan Stephen’s article on “Black Lives Matter” and Rebecca McKinnon’s chapter on “the Arab Spring”, they both touch on the power of technology in negative and positive ways.
Why have a mouth and a face if we are only going to communicate with our fingertips and through a screen with others who do the same. Conversation is a basic skill that helps us grow and communicate our ideas and ourselves to the world. Sherry Turkle the author of Reclaiming Conversation, a New York Times bestseller in 2015 informs us that conversation is being left behind and being replaced with new forms of interactions. Sherry Turkle is a professor of the social studies of science and technology at MIT and conducted a study for 30 years about the psychology of people’s relationships with technology. I believe that Turkle’s argument on education and how it is drastically affecting our education is still as relevant as it once was 3 years ago. With time many of Turkle’s arguments have become void but some have still stayed relevant in our present-day lives. In the 8th chapter of Reclaiming conversation Turkle focuses on Education and how it is being influenced by technology and the way is it has been affecting the college classrooms as well as face to face conversations.
The first party crasher, "readability," probably makes its presence felt in all of our venues at least occasionally, but it haunts our work all the time. At the simplest and most practical level, readability is a hermeneutic problem. But it is a special problem of interpretation, not just the "same old" questions that come up in any work involving the production of signs and meaning. We try very hard to reduce the special problem to the same old problems, as evidenced by terms like visual, media, and computer "literacy." The question is this: What makes us so confident that our "readings" of visual signs are legitimate or defensible? Okay, that does sound a whole lot like the "same old" hermeneutic questions, but I don't believe it is the same in the case of visual rhetoric as in spoken or written discourse. Or at least, it doesn't seem the same, given the degree of skepticism registered by readers and students about interpretations of visual signs. Leaving aside for a moment the possibility that my interpretations just aren't very good and that that's what's provoking this response, our own colleagues and my students seem to pose far more and greater challenges to such interpretations than they do to those of a speech or a written document. For them, apparently, even in the wake of deconstruction, natural language seems safer, easier, and more stable in its capacity of meaning generation than does the visual image. I wonder why that is the case, and particularly so in a culture in which "seeing is believing" and a "picture is worth a thousand words."
Any craftsman knows that you need the right tools to complete a project successfully. Similarly, people need the right language and usage to communicate in a positive way. How people write is often a problem because they don’t have the right tools, but a bigger problem occurs when a writer “is almost indifferent as to whether his words mean anything at all” (592). If a writer carries this mentality, why try to communicate in the first place? People need...
The new media, namely Twitter, Facebook and Youtube, with online blogs and mobile telecommunications, played a significant role as the politics of connectivity, which connect, coordinate and communicate the protestors. Labeled as “Twitter Revolution” or “Facebook Revolution”, the new media to some extent engaged in the Arab Spring uprisings.
Looking back over the course of the semester, I feel that I learned many new and interesting uses for technology within the classroom – both for classrooms that have a lot of technology and for classrooms that are limited with technology. For the majority of the class, we utilized William Kists’ book The Socially Networked Classroom: Teaching in the New Media Age (2010), which provided multiple modes of instruction that both utilized and/or created technology. One of the first things that I remember, and consequently that stuck with me through the course’s entirety, is that individuals must treat everything as a text. Even a garden is a text. The statement made me change the way that I traditionally viewed Language Arts both as a student and as a teacher, as I very narrowly saw literature and works of the like as texts only; however, by considering nearly anything as a text, one can analyze, study, and even expand his/her knowledge. Kist (2010) states that society is “experiencing a vast transformation of the way we “read” and “write,” and a broadening of the way we conceptualize “literacy” (p. 2). In order to begin to experience and learn with the modern classroom and technologically advanced students, individuals must begin to see new things as literature and analyze those things in a similar manner.
To understand multimodality, I first to need define mode. Mode simply refers to a set of different techniques to allow the reader to achieve a deeper meaning out of content. Mode isn’t just communication but the connection between these resources and how they interact with one another. Mavers also notes that “what a mode is continues to be subject to debate” in part because modes are “socially and culturally shaped”. Information from this text suggests that there are not hard and fast rules for what counts as a mode. Instead, particular groups are able to define what is and what is not a mode. In their threshold concept, Cheryl E Ball and Colin Charlton point to five modes: “linguistic, aural, visual, gestural, and spatial”. The couple of examples are just a couple of the many modes that can be present in a work. In short, multimodality is the use of multiple modes within a work to greater enhance the topic a writer is trying to convey.
Ong, Walter. “Writing is a Technology that Restructures Thought.” Writing Material. Ed. Evelyn Tribble. New York. 2003. 315-335.
In our growing, diverse society it’s very important to have diverse communication skills. The reason for this is because it brings richness in our society. Effective communication helps us better understand a person or situation and enables us to resolve differences, build trust and respect, and create environments where creative ideas, problem solving, affection, and caring can flourish (Robinson, Lawrence, and Jeanne Segal). It helps our society flourish. Communication is the process of understanding information through the transmittal of words, actions, hidden messages, signals or thoughts. Communicating in a world of diversity may require more than just a transmittal of words. Communication sometimes require more than one process depending on who you are communicating to. Communicating in a world of diversity has many benefits. Communication is split into two parts which is listening and speaking. Speaking as well as listening goes hand in hand with each other. Speaking and listening is verbal and nonverbal. Listening is one of the most important aspects of effective communication (Robinson, Lawrence, and Jeanne Segal). It’s not always what is being said but rather what is being done. Non-verbal communication is a big part in communication also. Both the talker and listener are participating in non-verbal communication. Non-verbal communication is depicting the body language, body movement, gestures, postures, eye contact, or either one of the five senses. Developing the ability to understand and use nonverbal communication can help you connect with others, express what you really mean, navigate challenging situations, and build better relationships at home and work (Robinson, Lawrence, an...
A work of literature is not complete until it is presented and critiqued by the reader. Over the years, the means of presentation of the literature has evolved with the availability of new technologies. One of the single most important developments over the past 100 years is electronic media. Electronic media has allowed for literature to be presented not only though a bound book but also audio and video. Electronic media has also allowed for easier, less time consuming authoring and publishing. This new media is still developing today and will continue at a fast pace as long as new technological breakthroughs occur.
Social media can be used in our days as a very helpful tool for many things in changing any person’s life ant attitude. It has a positive impact on the society level. These media will keep the person socially active and open to all what happened in the world. Sharing the latest news, photos, finding new friends and knowing the culture. Also, it allows for millions to keep in touch with each other and update for all the new technology. And, it helps people who have difficulties in communication with others to be more socialized and stronger and develop more confidence to feel more comfortable, protected and relaxed just sitting behind a screen. “It saved me time and money without ever requiring me to leave the house; it salvaged my social life, allowed me to conduct interviews as a reporter and kept a lifeline open to my far-flung extended family” says Leonard(231).
In recent years, technology has become the most used and preferred way of communicating, extending across many platforms. All of these programs, such as e-mail, instant messaging, social networking websites in conjunction with text messaging and the ability to access all of these entities on the go, have come into fruition based on the immense and widely found growth made in technological advancements that have occurred in our society. With this, a massive change has developed in regards to referencing how we as humans engage in communication. We have now shifted into a society that relies heavily on the existence of digital communication, whether it be through the means of a mobile device (text messaging) or the Internet (Facebook, Twitter,
Visual Communication could be described as processes that rely primarily on rich visual content as the means of conveying information through words, photos, colors, shapes, and many other components. However, visual communication explores the use of graphical components in achieving communication goals. Visual communication has both critical and practical parts. According to the current book we use in the class “Visual Communication, Images with Messages”, the critical part of visual communication is known as visual rhetoric, which explores the way that designers use visual elements to influence audiences.