"pure mind-stuff"

I realized lately how much our perceptions of writing, creating, connecting, etc, centered around the internet, and how they've changed, and how screwed we'd be if it shut down somehow. As I write this, my brain is working out ways to incorporate more information in various formats (pics, links, tags, vids) to make for a better blog. I've become obsessed with del.icio.us and don't know what I'd do without texting (I have unlimited texts with tmobile for $15 a month) and blogging. When encountering an unfamiliar reference, I've got Wiki on my drop-down. But I didn't know about all the cool stuff that you can do as Rheingold describes in Smart Mobs, and now I'm a little scared. I thought the cell phones that pinpoint your location were a little creepy. I hear you can also put a thing in your kid's car and track them around town like a damn dolphin. I recently received a text from a random number on April 20 encouraging me to celebrate 420. There's no doubt our tech-savvy is bursting with usefulness at the sacrifice of privacy. I actually feel a little sorry for Alec Baldwin these days, after his voicemail ranting became public property. Seems like we could do something about malaria in third world countries before perfecting real life gaydar, celebrity stalker alerts, and dating services that beep you when a potential mate is within striking distance.

It also seems the availability plus the instantaneousness (yes that's a word, I just created it) plus the sheer volume of information in our world is going to require a lot more discernment on the part of the sheep, I mean, people.

These words will be worth remembering when millions of people carry devices that invisibly probe and cloak, reach out, evaluate, interconnect, negotiate, exchange, and coordinate invisible acts of ad hoc cooperation that create wealth, democracy, education, surveillance, and weaponry from pure mind-stuff, the way the alchemy of inscribing ever-tinier patterns on purified sand invokes the same forces from the same place."

The discussion about threshold models of collection action and emergent behavior was also interesting--I used to talk to my 7th graders about the difference between a crowd and a mob before reading "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street." "Decades ago, computer scientists thought that someday there would be forms of 'artificial intelligence' ...they never thought in terms of computer-equipped humans as a kind of social intelligence." This certainly holds a lot of promise for anarchists and revolutionaries, all in their Palm Pilot.

Click here to read a fantastic online chat between a guy named Remy and Dell Customer Service. You won't regret it.

Query (especially for writing teachers)--is the pen mightier than the sword?


Simpsons episode about WOW

ADHD

Hypertext is cool, I dig it. So just for fun, I have randomly hypertexted things, sort of like an easy Easter egg hunt. Some links are relevant, some are not. You might get a chocolate, or you might get a dead baby bird (metaphorically speaking). I liked the hypertext article, except I found myself virtually flipping the pages and looking at the pictures. At first, the non-linear structure threw me off, and I was apprehensive about clicking hypertext and not being able to get back to the main page, that I would miss something or get out of sequence and not understand. I got the basic gist and really connected with the "virtue of irregularity" idea. Regularity is good for car maintenance, periods, and paychecks, but what good is it in the real world aside from making everyone fit their worlds into well-defined little boxes? I've always been a fan of trying something different, even if it's not entirely well thought out (e.g. my recent hair mangling). It's interesting to me to think about models or processes of thought--I had to draw my own model of how information is learned for Ed Psych, and it was different to think of thought processes in a spatial way. Which brings me to the next article:

Sounds to me like Catherine Adams has had to sit through one too many staff meetings delivered via The Devil, aka PowerPoint. From this point on, I will not capitalize it.

I did not know that powerpoint was responsible for the Challenger blowup (and here text fails me because there is a definite sarcastic note in my voice), only for mindlessly boring class lectures and meetings, the worst of which not only featured powerpoint in all its default glory, but also supply you with hard copies of the slides ahead of time. You know, in case you get lost or something. I agree with the basic argument against powerpoint, but really, I think the bigger problem is that it's used for the most driest of material. Boring facts and figures, bulleted lists and charts and pie graphs, maybe a quote with a relevant and/or pleasant picture....zzzz.....and this is seriously how teachers are taught and sometimes end up teaching. I also see this as a response to the way teachers and students have been squelched by standardized testing and micromanaging. Make it nice and "techy" and organized, that must be a sign of real education going on. Just use the default setting, every child can learn and is essentially the same anyway (again, text does not convey tone or inflection very well).

I have used powerpoint in class, not to present information, but as an individual assignment over a story (usually a narrative) that essentially is like this: create five slides, one on each story element--character, setting, plot, theme, resolution. Add relevant pictures or artwork. Pretty simple. This exercise got kids thinking about presentation, font size and style, picture selection, what to write and how to write it. It distinguished these abstract ideas and forced them to come out from between the lines on the pages where they hide all intermixed, and be on display on a 4:3 rectangle, ready to be analyzed. And like it or not, we're probably all up into powerpoint because it's a rectangular picture box with not too many words on it at once and sometimes with fun sounds, and we like that kind of thing.

Being in a long distance relationship, I am thankful for text messaging and IMing as it allow frequent (sometimes over-frequent) communication with my special man friend. I've said a few times that text can't connote tone and inflection, but when you text/IM as much as we do, it kinda does. One thing I've always appreciated about Mark (and he about me) is that we don't do the "LOL,"using "u" for "you" and "2" for "two" type of texting--we are grammarian elitists (evidenced by our watch-doggedness on each other's grammar). Lewis and Fabos reported similar findings in their study. However, this is not always easy--a few tasty fights have cropped up from textual misunderstandings. Scorpios have very sharp humors. IMing is also frequently used in the making of plans that concern meeting in establishments of food and drink. Plans change quickly, and you are painfully aware of that when you have one friend without a cell phone. Next thing you know she's calling you from restaurants you're not at and phone booths. I'm so good at texting I can do it while I drive, but I really try not to. Sometimes I'd rather text someone, and thereby bypass the customary rules of the phone call: greeting, small talk, purpose of call, resolution/plans made, small talk, ending. I can't do anything else while I'm on the phone, not even listen to music, I just can't concentrate. I'd rather say: "Trudy's, 8pm" and be done with it. Texting is also good for speeding up those faculty meetings facilitated by powerpoint.

things i've done online
- chat with friends
- check work schedule
- used SubFinder
- apply for job online
- email parents, college roommate, friends, professors, coworker, sister, job offer guy
- looked over Mark's homework
- shared my homework online with Mark
- worked on a paper
- checked myspace
- found articles from online library
- read/printed out assigned readings
- researched and purchased airline tickets
- wrote a blog entry
- researched lesson plans
- looked at other people's blogs and made comments
- found video clips pertaining to graffiti
- started final project using Windows Movie Maker
- looked into South Beach diet online
- paid my credit card bills
- ordered pizza
- ordered a new Netflix movie
- checked my bank balance