Liz's Blog

last post

2005-02-21T19:01:00.000-08:00

i think blogs are best used in academics simply as blogs--as a means to experience and then learn/comment on what it is like to write in a blog and/or read the blogs of others. i don't really see a benefit or real purpose for writing assignments up on a blog. it would be easier to just e-mail a word document or something like that. however, i guess it's nice to look at the blog assignments that we've written throughout the quarter...that's something that you can only really get with blogs. so maybe the organization and staying power of blogs is their true value. hmmm....

a blog is whatever you make it to be. this is the same for anything you write down on paper. i can just write a quick note to remind myself of something. i can write a poem. a letter to a politician. song lyrics. a recipe. an idea. or a formal essay. the legitimacy that my piece of paper has depends on many things: the opinions/critiques of others, my reputation, what kind of paper/pencil i use, etc...

academia. what is this anyway? i think that this concept is even more un-concrete than blogs. and i think that academia is largely influenced by the topics. therefore, if people want to learn about blogs, then there is of course a place for blogs in academia.

my understanding of blogs really hasn't changed that much. maybe it's been broadened slightly--i didn't know that there were SO many different types of blogs, yet i knew and understood the potential for blogs to be as far-reaching as they are today.

as far as PWR is concerened, i think it would be interesting to not only comment on the writing of our peers, but on some other random person's blogs. we talked alot in class about the fact that ANYONE can read your post...why don't we experiment with this fact? we could make weird comments like..."do you know who's reading this?" or something like that. hmmmm....(again).

signing out,
liz

presentation review

2005-02-18T11:35:00.000-08:00

i think that as a whole, everyone really improved...both with presentation style and content. those that gave the best presenations built upon what they said in their earlier presentation and gave more specific examples. i liked how some people narrowed down their topic and then went into a lot of detail about a specific thing and then in the end tied everything together. the preventing presentations were a lot less wordy. they were mostly pictures or websites, which helped people to give their OWN presenation, and not let the powerpoint speak for themselves. a few people had technical difficulties (myself included)...while these are sometimes hard to avoid they really break up the presenation and make everything that you're saying kind of less credible. the opening to presenations wasn't as "cheesy" as they were earlier. people either jumped right into their presenation or gave a quick update and then said what they were now focusing on. successful presentors didn't really use notes, they new their material and just spoke to the class...but it was obvious that they had practiced. i noticed that there are many different ways to stand in front of the class and yet still give an effective presenation. however, this time around i really noticed the impact of standing to the side/behind/or directly in front of the class.

Stanford IM

2005-02-08T21:58:00.000-08:00

no, i'm not talking about intramurals. ITSS is actually working on a campus wide IM system, to coordinate the Stanford campus on one big network (http://daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page=content&id=14226&repository=0001_article).

honestly, i really don't see the point of this. the professors who want to hold online office hours can easily do so by going on aim, international students who feel left out can also, once again, download aim. having a stanford instant messenger just seems like another thing to deal with and download. but i guess having an official "stanford im" would create an e-mail more connected campus. it would be easier to remind people about appointments and bills. but truthfully i'd rather just deal with that stuff through e-mail and over the phone. i don't need more "real time" stuff. aim is for goofing off with friends. i know that some people use it for homework and it works just fine doing that over aim.

Another example of using im to increase communication between college-age kids is Rock the Vote’s attempt to connect students who went to the same pep rallies and speeches on a new im network so that they could discuss political issues. (see: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,64580,00.html). The article says that
“in order to increase participation among this group, you have to hit them where they live.”—and I agree. There is an immediacy with im that you really can’t ignore. If someone ims you and wants to talk about something, it’s harder to not respond. This idea is better than some message board, and it’s more private as well. One-on-one conversations facilitate actually getting together with someone in person as opposed to posting personal information on a message board for all to see.

presentation plans

2005-02-04T11:05:00.000-08:00

my last presentation was not really in an "oral presenation" format...i want to work on making my presenation informative and intelligent, yet fun and interesting to listen to. i'm going to speak slower so that i am easier to understand and i will move from behind the podium to in front of the class.

my topic has morphed in the past few weeks. i am now focusing on video/computer games as educations tools specifically looking at americas army and full spectrum warrior as case studies. i was to discuss the belief that a human teacher, or a book, is a "better" medium for education than a high-tech game (which in many cases has more educational tools, allows for more collaboration, is more accurate, etc...) do people villanize technology simply because it is something they are not used to?

i also want to discuss army/military advertising and how they have been able to target the desired audience of teenage boys with a downloadable army training game. with over 74% of america's youth surfing the web daily, it really can't be a surprise that the army has used this technique.

hypertext post (i forgot to actually post this one on monday)

2005-02-02T11:10:00.000-08:00

"As a result, the meaning the reader makes of the hypertext depends in part on which nodes she visits, and in what order" (Scripps).

i had never really thought about this before, but it makes complete sense. hypertexts are kind of like those choose-your-own-ending books...you read a few pages and then have a choice to kill the princess or have her fall in love with her brother (or something like that). your experience, your entire understanding of the book depends on that choice. if you turn to page 28 instead of 87 you will be reading a different book than someone who chose page 37. there is no control over choice, the author (who in my mind has the goal of trying to get the reader to experience a specific, intended feeling/emotion/whatever) is at the mercy of fate and the possibly random (or maybe intentional) choices of the reader. the same is true for webpages. i think it was my comm professor who said that people usually only use a tenth of the technological capabilities of many programs, and the same probably applies to exploring webpages...i mean who has actually clicked on all of the links available on website. this is oftentimes an impractical and time-consuming activity. we use the web for info because it is easy. we can search for only the stories that interest us. we want it simple, straight-forward. sometimes links get in the way, they distract us for the message. but what if the message is in the links? if i click on some random highlighted word and my friend doesn’t, we will feel differently about our experience with that hyperlink...in an educational setting, do you want to allow for the difference? how does one convey a specific message to a user when there are so many choices?

<<< Point of Power >>>

2005-01-23T13:52:00.001-08:00

"People are asking whether, ultimately, PowerPoint makes us all stupid, or does it help us streamline our thoughts?" (Does Powerpoint Make Us Stupid? CNN.com)

I don't know....I kind of like powerpoint...when I'm not the one who has to use it. powerpoint is annoying (so is capitalizing letters...so i'm going to stop that now too). just last week when i was making my oral presentation, one of the biggest struggles was formatting my stupid power point slides. but i guess, in the end, i didn't really let my power point slides control me, i didn't even really refer to them in my presentation, just kind of had them in the background. i just put quotes that basically summarized the current point that i was talking about in my presentation, i didn't read them aloud, and there certainly were no bullet points or lists. yes, that is what is wrong with power point presentations, it's not the formatting or that fact that they're on a computer, it's bullet lists. complicated, beautiful, ingenious things cannot be bulleted. in the literalist sense it's not shooting a hole through them. tufte complains about this aspect as says that powerpoints oversimplify things, which is a way is true. but i guess if the powerpoint is only an aid in your presentation, and not the presentation itslef. i think that the problem is that when presenters are faced with a blank powerpoint slide, then think they need to conform their ideas to the slide, instead of making the slide work for them. byrne, although i think his $80 book is a bit extreme, conformed powerpoint to his own desires. it's all about the correct means. i wouldn't read my essay as an oral presentation and i wouldn't put my oral presentation on a hypertext--and i most def. would not put the gettysburg address in bullet points.

<<< Point of Power >>>

2005-01-23T13:52:00.000-08:00

"People are asking whether, ultimately, PowerPoint makes us all stupid, or does it help us streamline our thoughts?" (Does Powerpoint Make Us Stupid? CNN.com)

I don't know....I kind of like powerpoint...when I'm not the one who has to use it. powerpoint is annoying (so i capitalizing letters...so i'm going to stop that now too). just last week when i was making my oral presentation, one of the biggest struggles was formatting my stupid power point slides. but i guess, in the end, i didn't really let my power point slides control me, i didn't even really refer to them in my presentation, just kind of had them in the background. i just put quotes that basically summarized the current point that i was talking about in my presentation, i didn't read them aloud, and there certainly were no bullet points or lists. yes, that is what is wrong with power point presentations, it's not the formatting or that fact that they're on a computer, it's bullet lists. complicated, beautiful, ingenious things cannot be bulleted. in the literalist sense it's not shooting a hole through them. tufte complains about this aspect as says that powerpoints oversimplify things, which is a way is true. but i guess if the powerpoint is only an aid in your presentation, and not the presentation themselves things don't need to be that simple. i think that problem is that when presenters are faced with a blank powerpoint slide, then think they need to conform their ideas to the slide, instead of making the slide work for them. byrne, although i think his $80 book is a bit extreme, conformed powerpoint to his own desires. it's all about the correct means. i wouldn't read my essay as an oral presentation and i wouldn't put my oral presentation on a hypertext--and i most def. would not put the gettysburg address in bullet points.

numero dos: research ideas

2005-01-09T23:26:00.000-08:00

search engines: more specifically search engine marketing. if every internet experience begins with a search, marketing/advertising at these sites is key. possibly a discussion of google's technique of no advertising on the actual search page, but "sponsored links" and advertising on the side bars. is this technique one of the keys to google's success? i know that personally i feel less overwhelmed when i looked at the mostly blank google search page, as compared to other search engines. i am amused by the changing artwork, and i calmly type in my search word, without bother from blinking lights or popups. the google front page really makes me feel like google is doing me a favor. that there is this innocent website just wanting to help me find what i am looking for with no ulterior motives. i also want to look into google and stanford's new venture in "digitizing" volumes upon volumes of texts. i want to understand how a search engine actually decides what page will be number one on the list of matches. why oftentimes unreliable sources are listed above reliable ones. how much credibility does being the number one match give to a possibly bogus webpage? is this how many people, namely younger or lesser educated persons, decide credibility. i also want to discuss the varying types of search engines, namely the newer and less explored grokker, which sorts topics in a more visual and conceptual way.

the below link is to an article discussing the $4 billion spent in 2004 on search engine marketing:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=a7c45fb3d3bbd2fd0ef3d99c22347882&_docnum=3&wchp=dGLbVtz-zSkVA&_md5=bf6e181cf3d0ec2a6fcb4549c3f8692a

virtual gaming and military training: i think it would be interesting and very relevant to research how american soldiers are "training" for battle with high-tech video games and the fact that many children and teens also play similar violent, war-type games. i would like to discuss the "negative training" that goes on when simulation warfare is different to actual warfare. what are the effects of solider performance, on injuries and deaths? are war video games some ploy by the government to train young men and prepare them for an eventual draft? probably not. but it would be interesting to discuss.

the below link discusses the major points of the war simulation topic:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=1df4608dade4cc956462337a68dbd716&_docnum=11&wchp=dGLbVtz-
zSkVA&_md5=d8384dbd46c8cc2aef01cb4ec29cc066

right now (as in nearing midnight on sunday evening) i am leaning towards search engine marketing. probably because i am interested in advertising and i would love to do advertising/marketing as a career. however, the war simulation topic is very pertinent. i feel that more investigation is necessary...

Numero Uno

2005-01-05T11:48:00.000-08:00

What sort of blogs, if any, have you kept in the past?
I started a livejournal about four years ago and I wrote in it almost everyday. I think it was basically a diary. I kept track of what I did each day and I would vent about stuff that was annoying me. My best friend had a livejournal as well, and I remember she wrote one post about getting drunk or something like that and her parent’s friends read the post for some reason and she got in trouble. After that we made our livejournal "friends only." I deleted my livejournal during the middle of my senior year in high school. But I created a new one during the summer as a way to reminisce about my high school memories and to talk about how excited/nervous I was for college to begin. I still have that same livejournal, and I write in it about once a month or so. Now, it has become a way to keep in touch with friends from home.

How do you feel blogs fit into your understanding of e-rhetoric?
Blogs are an informal way to say whatever you want. They are like a diary that can be read by millions of people on any computer in the world. I feel that people can really express themselves on a blog because there are very few, if any, standardized and required formatting or structure requirements.

What blogs (if any) do you read on a regular basis?
I read my best friend's livejournal, and a couple of other livejournals of friends from home.

Why?
To keep updated on their lives. It's hard to keep in touch with everyone going off to college; it makes it easy to just read what people update. It makes me feel more connected to home.