Web 2.0 Pedagogy interpreted by Jen:
empower users
creation of new content through online social interaction
embrace, explore, and extend Web 2.0 applications
collective intelligence
mashup and remix data
co-developers
The following is from the O'Reilly site: From "publishing to participation." I think that web 2.0 is very much about participation. Christine, I think that democracy is also an important idea which connects to Jen's comment about empowerment. Users are empowered by vast choices in technology to participate and create content not just consume it. However, some may feel paralyzed by all of the choices.
empower users;
network effects from user contributions
user-centered approach
the architecture of participation
users who can control how data is displayed on their computer
Using the web to create databases for personal or group uses. Interactivity beyond: new forms of communicating and sharing ideas/art projects; Collaboration across nations for projects.
I like the idea that we are participating in this read/write culture in this week's facillitations. This is what I have heard ed_techies describe as "expanding the four walls of the classroom", or engaging in the authentic task of Web participation by tagging artwork at a museum, commenting on a blog, or adding to a voicethread.
I agree that web 2.0 has great characteristics and potential for education. I liked the characteristics of empowerment of users. I think, however, we need to think of whom users really are. Who makes web contents and who doen't or can't? Who does collaborate and who doen't or can't? And why do they collaborate and why others don't or can't?
I think web 2.0 might be a kind of language to communicate among active web users. So it can be a foreign language for some people. Maybe we need some classes like ESL for web 2.0 in school.
We live in a digital culture which constructed by remix.
Since the development of internet, programs, and digital machine (digital camera, digital television, computer, IPod…), remix can be probably more technologically developed dramatically and rapidly in the future.
Especially, in classroom, young people are pleased to accept remix as a method which expresses their own ideas and meanings easily. But each student has different remix-manipulation techniques level.
So, teacher must provide to students how to use the tools.
This video is an example, how to Photoshop using in oneself.
You can find many how-to videos on photoshopping techniques in Youtube.com.
One of my former high school students introduced me to this site. I had many students that were into Anime. There was actually an Anime Club at the high school where I taught. This is a great site for students interested in Anime and other visual remixes.
My friend's teenage daughter is obsessed with deviantART. She has made some amazing digital illustrations. The community there is really important to those who belong.
This reminds me of my participation in a Japanese anime fan site that enables users to directly draw pictures use the paint tool it provides. The host is call Paint BBS. I even tried to install on in my Web page for my students when I was teaching in Taiwan. But because some technological issues, I didn't successfully install it.
I think this site is a playground for digital artists.
There are many galleries of digital works submitted by members.
Think about digital art and animation in the past, present and in the future.
Create your own photo montages that mix elements from two or more images, like this web site.
You can get various image resources from here, and your students also.
I am not sure I completely understand the assignment, but the one seems obvious. However, if this is a fake secret, then it might be the reverse.
I am disturbed by this one.
The assignment is to guess who the sender of the postcard is based on the secret and the imagery shared on the postcard. Hopefully, this will make more sense after reading the article. Some of these postcards seem very obvious, but you're right that if the sender is lying or trying to portray themselves as someone else(an alternate identity) than the postcard takes on a different meaning. They may evoke different feelings.
After the reading, I am trying to challenge my first responses. I seemed to of assumed they were just male or female, never thinking that maybe transgendered would come into play with these secrets. Since these are anonymous it means that any of these secrets could be a man portraying a woman, a woman portraying a man, or even purposely aiming their secret towards a gender they do not necessarily associate with.
Even though an intimate revelation is sent the anonymity of the sender allows for the sender to keep the secret of sending the postcard. Post Secret reveals secrets, but also keeps them.
Lindsay, I agree with you that this seems like a hetero male fantasy. After reading the article I am thinking of this idea of "trying on" and "role-taking."
I read today a 2007 article in Hypatia (v22, v3, pp. 30-45) by Michaele L. Ferguson on identity. It fits with my belief in process theory/actor network theory, and my position posited in several of my articles concerning a pedagogy of perpetual displacement (i.e., a theory of feminist democracy of continual self-critique, perpetually calling every notion into question). A premise of Ferguson's position is that "The meaningfulness of a claim to identity rests upon ongoing social practices that make such a claim intelligible. ... Without corresponding to live, ongoing practices, claims to identity cease to be meaningful. ... The target audience of the performance of identity matters. ... The practices in which identity is manifest are often overlapping, inconsistent, and even contradictory. ... the more complex the practices are that sustain it, the harder it is to dismantle or alter-like gender " (pp. 39-40).
Yes, I think so too. The handwriting is bold at the top and meek/lower case at the bottom. I think this supports the idea that the person is talking to themselves. We think of anorexia as being associated with young women.
I thought this was written to someone. I can imagine a male identity speaking this to a female identity. Male anorexia feels much more hidden / doesn't make me think of this image.
The framing grabs my attention with "you" in bed hidden, and the person writing the note spending some time in the bathroom putting on makeup. It does look like girls' writing from my years of looking at young people's writing. Brian surmissed this too. However, the writing style could be a gender masquerade of a man wishing to be interpreted as a woman. How does the meaning change for you if this is a man's secret?
it is interesting that there are certain ways of writing or ways of talking that can be identified as female's or male's way.
My writing are usually be guessed as a male writing (bad hand writing) though (at least when I was in school in Taiwan).
Handwriting is interesting to me in terms of gender. In school I was uncomfortable with how the girls liked to make big loops and dot their I's with large circles or hearts. It embarassed me. I didn't like how it portrayed girls.
In addition to the refernece to a husband, I think the text being written primarily on top of the woman is an indication that these words are being said by a woman.
The internet can provide an arena for people to take on new identities. They can be whoever they want, maybe it is someone they feel they can't be in person or they just wish to escape into a virtual world that is completely different form their own. The story of this site is for people to admit and own up to secrets they are too afraid to divulge to the public. This sort of identity is similar to what the reading spoke of. People can admit to these secrets and be themselves on this website, without anyone really knowing anything else about them, yet still some judgments are made and viewers can create their own perceptions of who the sender may be. I am a regular visitor of Post Secrets and I never really thought of this site in that way.
If cyberspace is a place where people can try on differnt identities, what does it mean to guess others gender? Is it important to know peole's gender and why? What can we learn from guessing? The turning game is certainly a way to raise people's awareness of online identity. But in many really situations, people cannot find out the answer or there is no answer.
I think I deleted my note about this one on accident, but I will try again. I wanted to guess a little bit further into the identity of this sender after the reading and hearing about the game. I could assume this sender is a female who is looking for hints about a boss she is also attracted to. I could even probably start making further assumptions about this sender, which I think the reading also responded too. Knowing an actual person and knowing an virtual identity can be two complete different things. This sender could be a complete fake and my assumptions would be way off.
I agree with your comments. Reading "The Turing Game: Exploring Identity in an Online Environment" has changed my perception of online identities, and lead me to second guess my assumptions about gender in virtual environments.
The gender identiy of this postcard is a little harder to decifer. Being that washington is made of of mostly men, I would think male. But the paper and pink and the ink is blue so it appears the author was trying to make this gender nuetral, and more about what they wrote and the imagery than about the gender defined by the card.
After reading the article, I think that the gender of the author if this postcard is female, trying to either be gender nuetral or male. It jsut seems like the author was trying to hard in reguards to ambiguity. Like the article said, it seems a little lengthy in its explination, or punch line, which is a feminine trait.
I agree that this postcard looks like the sender is trying very hard to be gender neutral, because of the color combination used for the text. I believe that the pink is more dramatic, but the blue text written on top of the pink color blocks dominates them (symbolic of a patriarchal society?). The word "extremely" is spelled wrong. I wonder if that is an intentional gender identity indicator.
I don't know if I can identify gender as much as traditionally gender-ascribed characteristics. I don't mind characteristics being identified with a particular gender as long as everyone can be seen as a mix of genders. This postcard represents the feminine.
This postcard at first glace give the impression that the author is a female, considering the "life model" is male, but with another concideration and the background we know about this website and it is place where people make confessions, we could think the author was a male who has a secret more thank lusting after the model, and more with his own sexual identity.
self identifies as female -- also, my experience with male identity makes it difficult to imagine a man saying "no one will love the body that I left behind"
Is this written in blood? I can't quite decipher the words, but am assuming a scrawled secret written in blood involves thoughts of death.Is this a female-gender or male-gender characteristic? This one is the hardest for me to call.
I think the last four words are, myself without hurting anyone. So, yes- designed to look like blood. But I don't think that it is really blood. Perhaps this postcard could connect to what the article says about the intended and perceived.
sounds like a male-gendered fantasy -- the size of the exclamation point, and the care taken with the design of the words on the page suggests to me that this person understands what he is saying
I can relate to this one because I have lived it. Love is an emotion guided by social constructs of the ideal. Obviously the construct of the ideal not only effected the way the poster of this secret thought others saw them but also effected self image and ability for self love.
This post card sender seems like a male to me.
first, the body line looks like a male, second, the breast is too flat to wear this big lingerie.
So confused.
What reading article proves is that it's difficult to judge people based on stereotypes. Think back, I also judged this postcard sender with stereotypes, body line and flat breast.
However, revisit here after reading, but I do not change my mind that sender looks like trying to imitate a woman.
But I learn through this study, I am certainly willing to judge other's by standards. What about you?
I enjoyed going back through the comments this morning AFTER the secrets had changed. Our comments were still floating on the page, but now refer to new photos. For me, this allows for language to slip as words now refer to the gender of images they were not intended to describe. This slip forces a new reading of gender because some comments are surprising in this context.
Please comment on this page and add sticky notes. Attempt to determine the gender identity of the individuals whose secrets are posted on the site based on the secret revealed and postcard imagery.
Then read Berman, J., & Bruckman, A. S. (2001). Turing game: Exploring identity in an online environment. Convergence, 7(3), 83-102. Revisit this site after reading the study and annotate the site again based on your reading reflections and reflecting on your previous annotations. Thanks!!
I believe that identity is fluid, rather than static regardless of one's associated gender. Sharing of one's secret through this site may foster an emerging identity, or may be a turning point for individuals.
I also believe that the Post Secret community represents the metaphor of an archipelago identity. Participants of the Post Secret community despite their differences share a commonality, which is their sharing of secrets in virtual space. They share this element of identity with one another.
I'm very intrigued by this site, and believe that there is something very powerful about individuals' comfort in sharing such intimate details in public space. I hope to use this site for further online identity research.
This can be a great way to bring in current political issues into the art classroom. It can allow students to study original propaganda posters from a historical stand point, while being critical and allowing them to remix and voice their own opinions and thoughts.
This type of remix really "talks back" to a dominant message that is being encoded in visual culture. I like the idea of remix as creative resistance. David Darts writes about this. He calls is Culture Jamming.
Yeah MEM I've read that David Darts article, it was really insightful. I do really like the idea of this propaganda remix, and it can be combined with the photoshopping that was talked about in the articel as well.
I agree. I also think these images in this site to make students' thought ciriticized. this site is helpful for students to study visual culture with their own opinion.
I used to refer to this site as a high school digital imaging teacher. My students loved it! They referenced the cybergenics and bestiality galleries, and then created their own creature by mixing images of mechanical and animal body parts in Photoshop.
Yes! My elementary students and I experimented with remix, creating mixed up animals using http://switchzoo.com/zoo.htm We began with this Web-based activity and then extended the idea into their own artwork.
Graham Leggat, former director of communications for Lincoln Center's film society, described Red vs. Blue as "truly as sophisticated as Samuel Beckett." (Wikipedia)
"Meaning making draws on knowledge of Discourses-that is, on insider perspectives, which often go beyond the literal and beyond what is literally in the sign. Within remix practices, Discourse knowledge is often key to understanding a remix" (p. 7).