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Some Potential Articles for my Project

http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/mar/31/paper-vs-digital-reading-debate-ebooks-tim-waterstone

Opinion piece based upon the debate on whether or not book are slowly dying. The writer seems to think that that is just an appalling idea,

http://the-digital-reader.com/2014/02/18/infographic-top-ten-reasons-choosing-paper-book-ebook/#.VFGuuRZTaXE

Looking at the statistics as to why people prefer an actual physical book over an e-book.

#digital humanities #digital #e-books #paperback #novels

Anaconda

So I played around with RapGenious and got a kick out of it. I went through a couple of songs, but my favorite was anaconda by Nicki Minaj. For a song that pretty much talks about women and their butts, people looked so far into the lyrics. Meanwhile I thought whoever wrote the song for her was looking for words that rhymed, and not words that had very in depth meaning to who Troy is and why he is doing what he is doing in the song.

My favorite is the beginning of the second verse, "Boy toy named Troy used to live in Detroit" and the description of it, "No surprise Nicki would have boy toys at hand, considering everyone wants her as an ass-et. This boy Troy was probably chosen because of his Detroit origin and its reputation for having bad-boys, either for sex or drugs, creating a sort of dangerous thrill for her." Meanwhile, I think she chose Troy because it rhymed with toy.

This tool is merely used for entertainment purposes. I mean, I guess you could use it to try to get a little more insight into the meaning of the lyrics, but I don't think it should be used to literal purposes at all.

Peer Review

It's been something that has been around since the beginning of publishing texts and works of writing. Simply by having a family member or friend read it over before submitting the work is peer review. But the idea that the world is becoming the "peer[s]" in peer review, it kind of a crazy thought.

With site available like CommentPress and online reviews, the people are now able to contribute to the writing, explaining what they think about it before the work is even published. So, sites like CommentPress are interesting, because the public can comment before the work is even finished. This idea interests me because a lot of time, before work is finished you have a lot to swap around and stuff. I know me personally, I like to throw all of my ideas out there then sort through them. If that happened on a site which allowed for people to comment even though the work wasn't finished, I would get so overwhelmed by everyone's contributions I wouldn't know what to do.

On the other hand, I can see how such a medium could work for the better because you could take people's comments into account while working on the piece of writing. It's a lot to think about, but like everything, it's a tool and it all depends on how you use the tool in which way it could help in the long run.

Electronic Editions [Weekly Create]

Emily Dickinson Archives:

http://www.emilydickinson.org/

As I looked through all of the suggested archives for this week, I saved the Emily Dickinson one for last, rightfully so. This was because it was extremely easy to navigate and make sense of the full purpose of the website and set of archives of her writings, her families writings, as well as what contributors were saying about the writings and more. The website is truly a "cultural" place to go and explore the writings of Dickinson. It contributes itself to scholarship in the sense that it is out there for anyone with internet access is able to use for their own knowledge and studies. Again, it is a sort of community. In a sense, the site and archives are a collaborative project because it has a "forum" section, where individuals who are interested, can write something up and send it in to be put onto the site. This is a big deal in the interactions and development of a more developed insight into the studies of Emily Dickinson and her writings.

The physical appearance of the site relates itself back to the times of Dickinson's writing. It is simple, and scholarly in that is doesn't have loads of distracting ads and links all over the page. However, the primary audience of the archive being scholars and students who are interested in the writings of Dickinson, forces the site to be perfect then. There is no need for flowery aesthetics added to the site.

Overall, it is a healthy contribution to begin archiving "great works" and works of famous authors and writers. This way, the information is there for the general public and does not exclude anyone. It is a wonderful project in getting more people interested and involved in older great works of literature that some may not be interested in.

DH Tweeters (Weekly Create)

Unfortunately, I was not able to make class today. However, as I got into doing this week's create, I was searching twitter for digital humanity contributors and came across @PhillyDHTweets which is a digital humanities group in the greater Philadelphia area. They tweeted a link to a variety of DH tools for beginners. Some of these tools we already have up on our course website, however a lot of them were very interesting. The website itself has a variety of tutorials alongside the tools. It was very helpful and insightful into the world of DH.

Here is the link to the tools site:

https://medium.com/dh-tools-for-beginners

Weekly Create: NGram

I have never used Ngram before but I played around with it a lot. I decided to look at popular contemporary literature that has been all the crave lately, like Twilight, and compare it to another popular trend, zombies. With The Walking Dead premiering in another month or so, and the popularity of the show, i figured an increased interest in zombies must have been seen over the past few years. Comparing this to "vampires," in regards to popular book series like Twilight and television series like True Blood and The Vampire Diaries.

As I thought would happen, there has been an increased interest in both of the topics-- especially over the past fifteen years or so.

I then decided to compare this to the topic of "voodoo," which I know is a popular practice and heightened interest of the past. I anticipated that voodoo would have lower interest than the other two in the recent years, and the graph shows half of that-- it's in between the two. However, interestingly, it is highest in popularity in regards to the three topics in the early 90's and only dropped below vampires in 1992-- Perhaps around when Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series had it's debut.

All in all, the three topics interested me since it is popular literature and entertainment, and seeing the link and differences that the topics have seen over time is also something very interesting to me as well.

#vampires #voodo #zombie

Weekly Create: DH & You

Digital humanities is becoming a way of life. It makes things much more convenient at times, yet it challenges the norms that prior, us as humans were used to. For instance, when getting our list of books for class, we instantly go online to see if we can order a used copy of the book for less money (positive). Whereas, sometimes they may only offer a digital copy, and for me personally, I like to have a book in hand so I can annotate and work with my book to come up with ideas and create insight. By them only offering an e-book version, I now have to find the book using another search engine (negative).

As time continues to evolve, so does technologies and from there, digital humanities. The humanities are moving with the time just as many other areas of study are (science, math, engineering, etc.) and with that, we are simply following with the waves of the time.

The continuous change and development of technology is inevitable, and us as humans need to learn how to work with it to make life as productive as it can be. Digital Humanities is a part of an evolution of culture and technology and will continue to be for as long as technology exists.

Class Continuation

Last semester I look an undergraduate class "Literary Studies in the Digital Age" with Dr. Travis. This semester I have officially begun my studies for my Master's degree and decided to take her graduate level of the course titled "Digital Literary Studies." It has the same concept but will be much more in depth compared to last semesters course. I am looking forward to it and getting back into the "Weekly Creates."

This inspiring short is a beautifully rendered reminder that social media engagement is actually disengagement from life in real time.

"Social" media at it's finest!

Technology in the Classroom: A Personal Approach

As time has progressed, technologies continue to evolve, taking old ideas and basis to new levels and renovations. It is with these new ideas and creations that we must learn to reinvent our thoughts and process of imagination to integrate them into our daily lives. It is most important, however, to ensure that engulfing a child in the world of technologies begins at a young age so that child can then use such technologies to their complete advantage in their future. These new technologies offer a variety of subjects, content and mediums in which to work with for students. Giving a student the opportunity to choose a medium in which they can express themselves, and lend personal testimony, is the most important aspect that Digital Humanities has to offer the students of the future.

Being given the opportunity to use a digital platform to create both my midterm as well as my final projects for an English class was an opportunity I have never had in the past. I was able to use my own personal work and experiences and incorporate them into my projects. By doing such, I then created a bridge between myself, my classmates and my professor, welcoming them into my personal life by sharing experiences such as my personal photography as well as have a back fusion surgery six years ago. These personal experiences are important pieces to who I am as an individual and have helped me become who I am today. So many “traditional” classrooms do not allow for this link between personal life and classroom life and that is where the problem lies. If professors allowed for students to incorporate personal experiences via a digital base or platform, then students would be more interested and have more of a drive to fulfill the assignment requirements with a passion and a drive.

For my final project, I used “telescopictext.org”. In the most basic ways of explaining, it’s a website which allows for its users (me) to write a story… with a twist. The user can write out one sentence, then with a click, select one word in the sentence to then add more to that sentence, or a separate sentence entirely. The final product is a story, but in order to get the whole story unfolded, you must click on different words which unfold another line or part of the story. Over all, the actual final product doesn’t seem like it was too difficult to get there, however, don’t let that fool you because it took me a total of three or four tries to make it perfect. And by perfect, I mean it can still have a little work added to it. Here is the link to my final project: Nicole's Project

As I worked on my project, I truly realized how important it is for a teacher to begin to change their teaching ways and transform their classroom into a technology savvy place. The benefits of having students do creative pieces using a technological medium are endless. From the originality that comes from it, you will not have to worry so much about fabricated and work that is not theirs. By incorporating a personal aspect and testimony and allowing students to choose their topics, allows for an endless possibility of what you may be viewing. As Carolyn Fox explains in her online article, “Digital Technology and Creativity in the Classroom Prepares Kids for the Future”, “Many teachers know that it is important to be able to give students and parents more choice in learning models and with digital technology, given that one size does not fit all and that a more personalized learning experience is needed.” By giving more opportunity and platforms a student can work with, teachers are then helping roll out the road to success for many other students who can begin to use their stronger fields and areas of study to their full advantage.

Often professors and teachers may argue that technology may work as a distraction in the classroom. And yes, this may be true in some cases. However, if technology was not such a taboo in the classroom, then perhaps this distraction may be nonexistent. By using technology to its full potential, teachers can incorporate lectures, notes, polls, videos, and all other content online, to create an interactive experience. An experience where students won’t have the time to get distracted doing other things, rather the entire 60-90 minute lecture period is used minute to minute with classroom instruction and interaction via technology. In Toni Fuhrman’s article focusing on technology in the classroom and using it as a learning tool rather than a distraction, Fuhrman focus’ on one professor specifically, Ron Yaros of the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism, and explains that, “Yaros often quizzes students to make sure they pay attention to the mobile content. "Students have to stay engaged in order to pass the quiz," Yaros said.” Perhaps this is one form that professors can take to ensure their students are engaged rather than just using the technology as a distraction. Another approach may be to have written reflections at the end of each class on how you learned from the assignment. The possibilities are endless and you are able to really explore beyond the classroom through using technology.

It is not entirely up to the professor to engage just the student into the technology in the classroom academia. There are many websites and MOOC (Massive Online Open Courses) in which a student can get involved in. However, professors are also open to presenting these websites and MOOC into their classrooms to engage in a more digital humanity lifestyle of teaching. As discussed in the classroom, only a few of the hundreds of thousands of online outlets a student can engage in to do class projects or to heighten their understanding of a topic at hand. A website that offers as an aggregator to all of these other websites is: 21st Century School Teacher. This website offers links to a large variety of other websites which a student can use to learn and enjoy learning to a new level. Many of these sites offer the digital humanities to a new kind, allowing for students to become involved and engaged in what they are presenting to the class room. Take for example the online presenter “Prezi” that we are all so familiar with. This website takes the typical PowerPoint presentation and gives it a little spin (no pun intended). It allows for the student to make the presentation their own and add a little dazzle to their presentation. With this, every presentation and project becomes more engaging and interesting to the audience, and therefore the students will learn even more from project presentations.

It is no question that technology has slowly but surely taken over the daily lives of many students in the 21st-century. However, rather than banning it and making technology something taboo and bad, if we all learn to work with it an incorporate it into the classroom, we can use technology in its most effective ways. By uniting the digital world and the humanities, we can surely create a work where the arts engage into the “free culture” awareness of the world and will then promote for the education of all in regards to the arts. Technology in the classroom is something inevitable; it’s something that is happening at a quicker pace than anticipated as the technology of the world continues to evolve. As long as we learn to incorporate it correctly, and continue to have students engaged in the class material, technology and digitalization of education can soon be the next biggest and best aspect in education.

My Final Project!

After many trials and errors, I am pleased to present my final project: http://www.telescopictext.org/text/YK7tzqqGtRQ6U

I am still finishing up my analytical component to my project, and that will be posted at a later date. Feed back and opinions on my Telescopictext will be greatly appreciated! Please let me know what you think!!

#telescopictext #digitalhumanities #writing #finalproject

Finito! (kinda)

http://www.telescopictext.org/text/t4hHzQh8c2TZ3

There's the link to what I believe will be my final project. I'm currently working on another piece that is a bit more story-like and I'm sort of thinking about using that one instead. I'm not entirely sure yet.

Honestly, this platform is a lot more difficult that I initially anticipated. I discovered that it is a lot easier to write the whole thing out first rather than type as you go along because your thoughts tend to just a bit jumbled up and such. I'm probably going to share this on tomorrow, but like I said I don't think I'm going to be using this one as my final project, it was just a bit more experimental than anything.

I'm also working on my final paper to coincide with my final project. I'm working on word but I'm not entirely sure what platform I want to use for this either. I would like to make it very interactive with link and pictures and such but we'll have to see!

Final Progress

I've been working on my final project. Like I said, I was going to use the platform telescopic text... and boy is this stuff difficult! It makes you think in all different and distorted ways. It's difficult, because you can't really write as you're going along. I think that what may be best is to write the whole thing out, then type is out and make almost like a tree with it. I'm not sure yet... it's all so experimental but I'm enjoying it so far!

#telescopictext #finalproject #experiments #confusing #digitalhumanities

Story Board

I want to use that medium, telescopic text, to tell the story of getting my spine fused six years ago. It's something I don't really talk about any nor do many people know because my scar i hidden, but I feel like it may make so an interesting story. I want to maybe use poetic language or a poetic form which the story unfolds, but all in all I want it to be the story of being aware of scoliosis and my struggle of living with it.

I also want to bring into it how I am now and possible include my X-rays but I'm not entirely sure how I will do this. That I've still go to figure out.

My response to my creative project will go into depth the thought process and what I hoped I achieved my audience to receive from my creative project.

My Final Project

I've decided to use the website: http://www.telescopictext.org/ and create a story via this website. It is a very interesting website in that each word that is clicked on brings about a new type of story of sentence. All of this is personal and you can change the words and sentences as you please.

I believe that this will be an interesting project because it has a personal.creative approach to it, yet it is entirely "English oriented" in the sense that I will be creating a literary work of some sort. I want to try and figure out how I can incorporate visuals to the the telescopic text if possible. I plan to try things that are out of the obvious when it comes to the website.

I am eager to begin writing because this will be my first time using telescopic text at all and I look forward to seeing how it comes out.

The Circle Response

The passage which I will be responding to is when Mae goes to dinner with her parents and her mother explains to her that she saw an old friend and began "bragging" about how well Mae is doing and threw in the amount of money that she makes.

This scene made me laugh because all in all it was such a typical response as well as action of a proud parent. Every parent wants to place their child in the spot light and Mae's mother sure did here; talking up Mae and her job beyond belief (even though it is a very hot job), and throwing in her annual pay.

I guess it made me laugh because I can mostly see my own mother doing exactly this. ;P

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