A new innovation

We have all used diaries and journals before but as technology is advancing, such an innovation called a “blog” has been created. While searching for research on my research topic, I found two very helpful resources. In “An Easy Guide to Blogging” by Nathan Hamm, He expressed a lot of great tips and information on what blogging really is and the benefits of it. Blogs are more so a personal website that is easier to maintain, updated more often, and offering much of a greater opportunity for discussion and interaction. A blog enables you  to add your own personal perspective which is most likely to appeal to a broader audience.

In “Blogging as a Social Tool: A Psychosocial Examination of the Effects of  Blogging” , a survey was used  to examine the the psychosocial differences between bloggers and non bloggers over time. It was determined that bloggers would show improved perceptions of social support and satisfaction with friendship and it lowered psychological distress in comparison with non bloggers.

The differences between the two searches I found was that in the second article which is the one I found through the Brooklyn Public Library and EBSCO, was that this article depicted more of what a blog does for blogger emotionally as oppose to what a blog really is and what it allows us to do. In the first article,it was more so a general overview of What a blog is, What blogging is and the importance of it. In addition, both articles do discuss the benefits of blogging and what it does for people that are bloggers such as I.

Words I used for my search:

blog, blogging, online journal, web log, writing, what is blogging?

Thoughts on Blogging & Non-Text Media

As most of you know I am an active blogger and writer but after attending this class so far,it’s made me wonder, Where did Blogging come from?  and When did it first start?  I’ve had multiple blogs before and I’ve started blogging since I was 14 but never wondered or thought where did blogging come from? and all these questions about the history of blogging and what is this drive that makes people want to blog more & more and what makes people create blogs in the first place?

I want to find out and ask my fellow friends as well why is blogging so important and when did they start. As for non-text media, I’d like to know what kind of importance do non-text media issue?  The different types of non-text media, the advantages/disadvantage and how it’s distributed. There are questions unanswered and I hope that I will be able to conduct research and find out on the history of blogging and non-text media.

SUBJECT HEADING:

ZA – Information resources (General)

MT – Instruction and study

– Jessica Deng

Thoughts to Piracy

Pirating is a very big problem at this very moment with the world advancing into a more futuristic point. Like Books, everything else is trying to have a go at the media from music to videos and also to video games. During class i have talked about something i saw online about how pirating old record disks.

“http://www.crunchyroll.com/pulse/music-piracy-before-computers-68394”

I think that this picture shows what we as humans do since the time that interesting things get places into the markets. We see something interesting that we like and we have to obtain it. One of the best ways to do that these days is to directly download everything we want.  One point that we had during class that really stood out to me was that we download everything we are interested in and when we like it, we then pay to obtain the real object. I find it fascinating that it is true. Everyone who listens or sees something that fit to their liking at our age would just download it and then after a period of time, if we are still addicted to that same thing, we would end up buying it just like the fans of music that spreads around the world these days.

Subject Headings:

CB- History of Civilization

CD-Diplomatics, Archives, Seals

-rchen

Homework for 10/5/10

Beginning next week we will move away from reading response blog posts and into research journal blog posts, which will lead us into the research paper.

I will give you a prompt for all of the research journal blog posts. I’ll bring the prompt to class and post it here on the website.

For next Tuesday 10/5, please write your 100-word blog post about any topic we’ve covered in class so far that you find interesting. What interests you about the topic? Is there anything on this subject you’d like to learn more about?

Also for next time, please write 1 comment on any blog post by one of your classmates, and do the reading (Badke Ch. 4 and the article by Dye, full details on the syllabus).

I’ll post and email about our classroom location on Monday. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Have a great weekend!
Prof Smale

The Education for Hire

On page 10 of the Martin 7 reading, there is a box that consist of the ideas for knowledge which are very accurate on how we as students have to go through during our education. But one point stands out very much to me and it is:

“Scholarly openness and cooperation take second place to
the academic rat race and power struggle which involves
toadying, backstabbing, aggrandisement of resources and
suppression of dissidents”.

This part of the reading is very interesting because this topic involves not only the use of power struggling but also the idea of taking ones work as themselves and whats makes another person do it. The thought of scholarly information is a “rat race” tells me that even in writing daily information to writing a book we as students aren’t the only ones that have to follow the rules of plagiarism and for a writer one must always be careful of how they store their findings due the the idea of “backstabbing” your work might be lost.

-Rchen

Creative Work

As a student, an active blogger, and writer  I found “The Code Of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education” to be interesting and informative. One concept that is discussed in this article is the right of fair use. Simply put, fair use is defined as “the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances – especially when the cultural or social benefits of the use are predominant”

We’ve already learned about media, but there is also media literacy. Media literacy allows us to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate messages in a vast variety. Media literacy is often applied to watching television, reading a newspaper, posting a comment onto a blog, and etc. There are five principles that apply to “institutional settings” and to “non-school based program”. One of the five principles that I found interesting was, “Student use of copyrighted materials in their own academic and creative work.” Students are encouraged to strengthen their media literacy skills by forming messages and using languages, images, sound,music and digital media to express and share significance.

Fair use applies to my blog and I because it is a form of media literacy. I used quotations, my knowledge, and my experiences in my blog. I use pictures from Google and various website but I always include a “Credit To:”. As an example, I included a link to my blog with pictures I’ve used from Google and so on.By using quotations, cultural, and social aspects in a creative work you are reproducing a new piece of work like none other.

My blog*Click to access my blog*

– Jessica Deng

Class tomorrow + computer access

Hi everyone,

We will still be in the library projection room, Rm A432, for class tomorrow. Please don’t forget to bring your copy of the readings — we will discuss them in class.

I’ve arranged for the Multimedia Lab in the library to be available for our class before tomorrow from 9:30-10am. If you need to submit your blog posts and have trouble getting to a computer before then, you can come to the lab before class and use the computers there to submit your posts. The Multimedia Lab is right across from the projection room. Please remember that your blogging homework is due by class time tomorrow.

Please let me know if you have any questions.
See you tomorrow,
Prof Smale

Class today + next week

Hi everyone,

Please remember to complete your blogging homework even if you were absent from class today. I also want to clarify that the blogging homework is due by the beginning of each class, just as a printed writing assignment would be due at the beginning of the class period. If you haven’t submitted Tuesday’s blogging homework yet, you can post it today and still get partial credit.

For next week we’ll have two more classes on issues in information: Tuesday’s class on preservation and Thursday’s class on ethics. Please do the reading and bring a copy of the reading to class on *both* days.

These are complex issues and I know that some of this reading is a bit more challenging than what we’ve read before. Here are some strategies you can try:

– Read each article twice. I like to read straight through an article once, then on the second read I underline important or confusing parts and write notes in the margins (including any questions I have).

– If you come across a word you haven’t heard before, don’t hesitate to look it up in the dictionary. One option is http://www.dictionary.com.

– These longer, challenging readings can be difficult to summarize. Try putting the article down after you’ve read it and freewriting a sentence or two describing what the article is about. Sometimes it’s helpful to speak the sentences out loud — if it seems strange to talk to no one, try describing the article to a friend or family member.

– I’m sure you’ve also noticed that the scholarly articles we’re reading are written in a very formal style and use jargon or specialized terms. Often jargon is necessary, but sometimes academics (myself included!) do not write as clearly and simply as we should. Clear and simple writing is an admirable goal — you don’t need to use specialized words in your blog posts if there is another, more common term.

– Ask questions! Be skeptical! None of these issues are simple, and there’s no one right or wrong answer. The issues we’re examining affect all of us — use the blog posts to explore your thoughts and ideas about these topics.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Have a great weekend!
–Prof Smale

Class notes 9/2/10

• Planned Obsolescence, the scholarly book we discussed in class, is an innovative example of new methods of peer review that are possible with digital texts.

• Library Success is a group wiki created and used by librarians around the world. It’s a great example of a collaborative project published only on the internet.

Remember to sign your blog posts!

Hi everyone, while I’ve been able to add all of us under the Authors list on the right side of the blog, I haven’t been able to change the blog settings to display the author on each post. For now, please remember to sign your blog posts. You can use your name or your WordPress username, whichever you prefer.

See you in class tomorrow! I’m looking forward to reading your blog posts.

–Prof Smale