Keithjagger's Weblog

Topic questions

keithjagger — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 17:48:53 +0000

Some of the new questions that I have come up with regarding the topic of how real is reality tv regard the news. News is essentially reality television and we all assume that what we see and read is the truth, but that is not always the case. Though it may not be false, the news is often distorted and biased. This is an additional area of a reality tv that I want to touch upon in my research and later in my writing. I also want to look into the moral aspects of reality television. If a show is portrayed as reality television is there some standard to which the show should be held with regard to how real that show is?

The Wonderful World of Wiki

keithjagger — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:07:23 +0000

Steph has decided to use technology as one of the central mediums used to teach her writing classes. Both her junior Com375 class, Writing as Communication, and her freshman Eng112 class have been developing internet and technology skills in the process. Not only are the students in each class learning how to use the new technology, they are also learning how to write knowing the public has access to their work.

By utilizing the UmassWiki tool, Steph has opened doors to possible feedback between classes and classmates. A web has been created in which the juniors are writing to both freshman and senior writing students and there is also discourse between the freshman and junior classes. An avenue for feedback has been established through which Steph assigns students to read other student’s work. Through this writers can gain valuable feedback and input that can be used to edit a paper or clarify a thought.

Through this avenue of communication and the fact that our writing is being posted for anyone to see, we are able to become involved in conversation with people who have an interest in what we write. The wiki is an open forum to post responses or comments to the authors of the work.

Aside from the aspects of wiki which allow students to post work, it also serves as a forum for information about class. Steph’s students are able to keep up to date on homework assignments as well as in class activities. I think this is a valuable tool for knowing what to expect in the coming days, as well as allowing us to look back on what we may have possibly missed if we were absent. Since we cover a range of material in class and often in advance of when we apply it to our papers, it is good to have an archive of in class activities to refer back to.

As we advance further into the year, I think the wiki will become easier to navigate and thus a better tool for each of us. I think it is great to bounce ideas off of fellow students and being able to learn from them as well.

Learning

keithjagger — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:07:46 +0000

My partner and I were asked to take the given definitions and ask questions of them in order to form an analysis of the text. To do this we asked the following questions:

How are the definitions relative to what we have been learning?

What events prompted Steph to post those particular definitions?

What are Steph’s intentions when providing these definitions?

By asking these questions we were able to come to an analysis of what we thought the quotes were in response to and the message they were trying to send.

The Return of Babel

keithjagger — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:44:42 +0000

Though I am not totally sure what Babel has to do with what we are learning about in class, I think I may now have a better understanding. There are a lot of points in Babel when you have been away from one of the stories for so long that you are not really sure what is going on. I think the use of semiotics and the use of signs helps the viewers decifer what is going on in the story. Though subtitles are used in scenes where english is not spoken, you sometimes need to interpret the character’s actions and body language as signs of what they really mean?

Babel PH

keithjagger — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 22:15:02 +0000

I can honestly say that after watching Babel in class I have no clear explanation of what is has to do with the subject matter of this class. If I had to make an educated guess I would say that Babel is relevant to the course material because it deals directly with the interpersonal communication of the characters. When using writing as a medium for communicating you are for the most part writing as a means of interpersonal communication rather than intrapersonal. This course seems to be focused on the study of human expression. Though this is based primarily on text as a medium the movie Babel depicts how people act under particular circumstances as well as amogst various company. Depending on where or with whom the subjects are communicating their actions and expressions distinctly change. This may relate to Writing As A Communication because when we write we too must change our style and delivery based on who we are writing to and under what circumstances we are writing.