What does it mean for educators to own their own content?

http://www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_20099854

First off, read this article. It does a fair job of covering Apple's costly plans to replace traditional textbooks in K-12 schools and beyond. What's scarier here for the obvious cost issues is this line here Noguchi writes, "Every year, the school district will have to buy more $14.99 textbooks that it will never own."

I've never considered myself a strict materialist; in fact, I think a widespread embracing of an economics and politics of virtualization and the intentions and extensions of a technologically extended body is an important and overlooked aspect of education, generally. I don't think that books need to be physical objects in the future of education. However, I'm wary that one company (Apple) may be making a bid to serve up a proprietary e-book format, only playable on their devices. While they may be offering a free book creation service, they will determine what e-books are "suitable" for their store, and what to reject.

We're quite possibly looking at the barrel-end of peer-reviewed scholarship here. If a profit-driven company takes hold of any exclusive fraction of the education market (an unfortunate trend already underway in universities), we're going to see severe drops in the quality of educational materials, hiding under the guise of self-publishing.

Educators and librarians need to be making a bid for open standards, be they HTML5, or some new standard. Why should we ever choose to adopt a proprietary standard from a single consumer electronics company? This is would be similar to a single paper company copyrighting the bookmaking process and putting a financial analyst and paper/ink/binding quality control person in charge of vetting any and all future educational publications.

We can't let one corporation determine (and have editorship over in their digital stores) what textbooks our children can access. Even if their devices get cheaper in time, their business model for education needs to be fought in order to preserve the diversity of ideas and opinions that we are trying to preserve in our collective pedagogy about and embedded within the world.

(I Don't Usually Title Stuff)

Computer Mediated Communication

Now Playing:

On The Public Screen

According to the DeLuca and Peeples, the public sphere evokes echoes of ancient Greece, a place to be seen and heard, with an amplified solo voice always addressing a captive audience in an arena with a stone microphone. I find the imagery and visual rhetoric of this metaphor useful. Don't really know about ancient Greece though, but if i associate that role with the West African tradition of a griot it makes sense to me. I'll admit I struggle with anxieties with writing online, the thought of writing in stone, if you will, posting a blog publicly, that I can't quickly delete, frightens me. As a spoken word artist I am more familiar with the ephemerality of performance.

Peeples and DeLuca however challenge the notion of the public sphere, saying "Our reservations revolve around the power of terms to shape and confine thinking, and as a supplement we want to introduce the public screen as a metaphor for thinking about the places of politics and the possibilities of citizenship in our present moment" (131). What interests me the most are the possibilities with communicating online and my own negotiation, representation, and other words that end with -ation. I should probably include a citation right about now. . . In the text Postproduction, Nicolas Bourriaud suggests that "objects are already informed by other objects and are blurred in this new cultural landscape marked by the figure of the DJ, who has the task of selecting cultural objects and inserting them into new context"(13).

So with that said, it helps if i think of the blog, which is a relatively new way of communicating for me (no I was not joking when I said my eight year old is my tech support), as an example of a public screen. As someone who views concepts with an analytical, poetic lens I hope to further explore and work through such notions of textuality and orality specifically within the context of online discourse. Of course. . .i

switch

[This is not a caption]

This is not a pipe.

the image is up

[Press play to listen while you read the rest slowly simotaneously ;-)...]

it's over here now i like to think of myself as a metaphorical DJ scratching at theory and practice...patience cause i'm new at this. blending the two seemingly separate surfaces, trying to get over

my technophobia

and all my fears of heights in dreamsialwaysfallallall

the time.interconnected and tangled 
situated in the local

at global

gourmet

where we play

http://Inside the micro and macroprivate/public and don't forget the personal and political. 
i am an advocate who articulates in a modality
auto-ethnographic

fragments

trying to find

my authentic self always

border crossing

and switching codes

role reserve

(RE)

reversal

is all i know.

everyone keeps telling me

you should get a Mac.

that might be more user friendly

but i don't have

Mac$

money

my phone is not "smart"

like all the others

it is dumb

and the only tablet i can afford

is a pad of paper and pencil

a relational capital like letters

I

wonder

if that is the

hi-definition

of being

digitally /divided.

after all

access not granted

but

WE

blogging to bridge gaps

with

qualitative facts

like

why?

is black

synonymous

with bad?

and how can you not feel the energy in your room now

even though the "artist is not present"

the absence is translated

when you say

shit

i smell

feel me

see me

hear me

trying to reach out and touch you

Let the beat ride for a moment. . .

re read it if you have to

In "Understanding Community in the Information Age," Barnes and Ducan claim "The primary act involved in computer mediated communication is that of writing. Like Ong's (1982) description of authorship, that act is intensely local, for, although we may be certain of an audience, we are unable to verify its existence just as we are unable to verify its interpretation of our writing"(12). This feeling of uncertainty is one that resonates with me; however, the idea that the local can be made more accessible being able to address a larger audience via computer mediated technology, making conversations possible with this public dialogue that invites multiple asynchronous meanings is where I see hope within online communication practices.

Work Cited:

all context and content is subvertly cited if you clink on links, that takes you where you want to go.

The Art Of Digital Communication

The school that started my adventures with Facebook

Can you think back to what you were doing on your spare time back in the late 90s? I surely can; sat around my house and watched television , played with my siblings, as well as my cat. Those were the three things that I once enjoyed doing on a daily bases; I almost felt as though my day wasn't complete unless those the three things took place...Now the times and activities have changed! In my spare time I now enjoy using the web as a valid source for information, communication, and entertainment! . Facebook.com, Twitter.com, and i-love-cats.com have become apart of my daily routine, as a daily essential in a sense. I can remember when I first heard about the now infamous Facebook. It was 2005, I was sitting my living room with my Aunt, and she was sharing a story with me about how she reconnected with her best friend from grade school and was able to see pictures of her and her family.

Once she mentioned that there was a way to share pictures with friends and reconnect with long lost friends, I was instantly interested in hearing more and even checking the site out for myself. In late 2006 I decided I wanted to create an account on Facebook in hopes of reconnecting with my seventh grade math teacher. I wasn't very tech savvy back then, so I asked a friend to set my page up. Once she was done I found myself becoming addicted to the site. I was was able to get the best out of Facebook for the first two years. I was able too find soooo many people that I once wasn't able to contact -- both friends and family -- as well as having the ability to share pictures that I thought were cute, funny, or just interesting. I used Facebook as a main source of communication to avoid unwanted phone conversations, and to keep up with current events.

Then Facebook began to make changes that were, simply put, 'wiggedy whack,' as I'm sure most of you can agree. I started to feel like my privacy wasn't 'respected' (as if I should expect much privacy when involved on a social website), so I decided to slowly remove myself from Facebook. Next best thing was to hop on the newly 'popping' site known as Twitter--@Midget_Macc12 :-) --Twitter is certainly the site I use to communicate with those people back home and away serving our country, to stalk celebrities, and of course to follow all the media sites, both entertainment and informational. One thing that Twitter has allowed me to do is keep up with the #CaseyAnthonyTrial. Throughout the course of this last month I haven't been able to watch every aspect of the trial, but having an account on Twitter allows me to 'follow' the case each day! If you like privacy but enjoy social sites for whatever your reason, Twitter is the site for you.

I find myself having to check my Twitter at least six times a day; it's my way of staying connected with those fortunate enough not to be here in Carbonhell and, of course, to figure out what certain celebrities are up too. I enjoy communicating with distant people more on Twitter than over the phone or via text. It's like a security blanket, as we discussed in class. I often times get extremely nervous when I talk to people randomly for the fear of not having anything to talk about (insert awkward silent moment) and for prolonged conversations. So for those reasons, I stick behind my 'blue screen' and communicate in that way.

My pride and joy; Miss. Gucci

Anyone who knows me personally knows my passion for cats and dogs, but most importantly my cat! One day I was on Google and decided to search "I love my cat" and this site, that was soon to become my ultimate favorite site, i-love-cats popped up. Once I clicked on it I fell in love. Everything that you could possibly want or need to know about your cat can be found on this site...and I mean everything. I hate having to give my cat Cat Food everyday so I decided to search possible cat meals, if you will, and found millions of recipes. Another reason I love i-love-cats is because within their search engine they provide links for other websites that also fit what you intially were searching for.

In class we spoke on how social sites were taking over and why and how. The three sites listed above help to manage my boredom, entertain me, and of course inform me. In a way I do believe that certain sites have taken away my desire to communicate with people in person or via phone and text. Now, instead, I resort to the handy dandy world wide web and the social sites they offer!

Core Communication Courses Online – Not a Good Idea, or Necessary?

Any online communication classes available?

This is my first time publicly blogging. I experienced my first reading of a blog during this SPCM 421 class (summer 2011). I was thinking when I joined this class, I might learn how to catch up to technology and find out about the online world that I had been missing out on. Prior to this class, my daily online interactions consisted of Facebook and PSN (Playstation Network). We did spend a day talking about online education classes as well as the same topic coming up once or twice a week on side conversations. I do have personal experience taking online courses and have many friends who have also taken them. I would like to comment on web-based online communication education courses.

In her article, "Is the Rush to Provide On-Line Instruction Setting Our Students Up for Failure?" Terre H. Allen argues that offering communication classes online will be setting students up for failure. I must first mention that this article was written in January 2006, over five years ago. I must also mention that Allen uses citations dated as far back as 1975; therefore, many factors in her article may not pertain to the online teachings or findings that take place today. I do agree with Allen’s basic thoughts that core communication skills are most often taught best in a face-to-face environment. I disagree with Allen’s statement, “When taking classes online, students miss out on these skills which lead them to failure” (pages 122-123). Speech practicing, being corrected, observing, and correcting others is beneficial for all students to experience in order to build their communication skills. These skills have been traditionally taught to students in a classroom, but students could be taught the same core communication skills through an online course by using technology such as Skype.

Skype is a program where people can have live conversations with each other by using a webcam to actually see and hear each other. It first became available in August 2003 and its use has greatly increased since then. Success results from an online communication course taught through Skype may disprove Allen’s thoughts that “face time” is the only way to gain communication skills. It may also prove that academic and social integration, which she credits for student retention and success (page 124), can be obtained from online courses. Is it not possible to learn communication skills from an online environment where these skills are taught in the same manner as in a class on campus? Technology is our future. Shouldn’t online speaking and its etiquette be taught to students as a part of basic communication skills?

“Online communication” is a valid form of communication and is growing rapidly. Businesses are turning to Skype more and more instead of in-person conversations and meetings. The future of businesses and institutions seem to be holding Skype as its new way of dealing with clients and members. Skype is reporting that 35 percent of its users utilize it for business purposes. This means that out of the 560 million users on Skype, 196 million of them are using it for business purposes. This number has increased by 25% in the last year (statistics from 2009). It appears that Skype will be a tool for all businesses in the future, meaning students need to learn how to use it. The best way to learn may be from actually using it in an online communication class.

I partially agree with a point that Allen makes when she states, “Students have a greater chance for success if they befriend a teacher through on-campus communication” (page 124). I agree that students have a greater chance for success if they befriend a teacher, but I don’t agree that a student can only do this through on-campus communication. My experiences are that if a student is the type who would befriend a teacher from a campus class, then that the same student would also befriend a teacher from an online class through email, voice chats, and/or Skype. I have befriended teachers in both my on campus classes and my online classes. I also know many upperclassmen who have never befriended a campus instructor and kept their same streak going by not befriending their online instructors either. Are a student’s benefits greater if their communication exists with on-campus teachers only, or are a student’s benefits greater if they simply befriend their teachers (whether on-campus or off-campus)?

On-campus integration?

Another claim Allen makes is “General education communication courses provide the content knowledge and active learning assignments that foster the skills necessary for social integration” (page 124). She asserts that these skills can only be gained from on-campus courses. I believe that social integration is important, but I think these skills can be obtained from online courses taught with Skype. I also believe that there are many negative effects from on-campus courses where students are socially involved in the wrong ways such as too much partying. I know upperclassmen who have not been able to complete their education due to failing grades as a result of too much of the wrong kind of socialization. I wonder how many students taking online courses fail due to partying?

Allen later mentions in her article, “First generation college students and others who may be categorized 'at risk' have even higher needs for communication skill development and 'face time' with faculty and peers” (page 125). I agree with this observation; however, I do not agree with Allen when she then states, “These [at risk] students are less likely to know how to engage in academic and social integration” (page 125). My experiences have been that the great majority of high school students, who would be Allen’s “at risk” students as freshmen, are engaging in online communication and feel comfortable with it. Their confidence and their social integration have been built up from their online communication. Personally, I was able to learn about my classmates and make friends because of the online communication I participated in.

Due to my online interactions, including limited blogging, I have also been able to develop knowledge of modern technology that I might use in a future job. Allen states, “Finally, general education communication courses that offer students the opportunity to link coursework with school success strategies should be the focus of future curriculum development and the scholarship of teaching and learning” (page 126). I agree that the benefits of on-campus communication courses may help retain students and are a factor in their success. We should not discount the skills that are gained in online communication courses though. Everyone learns differently and not everyone in on-campus courses succeeds simply because they are attending on-campus courses. The students who do not succeed on-campus may be the students who are destined to succeed in online classes.

Varieties of teaching help us succeed!

My ending thoughts are about whether or not colleges and universities should only be teaching core communication classes on campus. It seems that all students need and deserve the right to learn core communication skills in order to enhance their lives, even the students who are only able to attend online courses (possibly due to financial matters or time restriction matters). I have learned about technology through this class and feel that, with the help of today’s technology, it would be unreasonable to believe that general education communication courses could only be effectively taught in on-campus classes? Are there not skills to be gained by students in both types of classes? My opinion is that colleges and universities will increasingly need to offer core communication classes to both on-campus and online students.

Cyber Nostalgia

(lolcats on the nets)

In Alone Together, Sherry Turkle expresses her hair on fire, end of the world concern of our tethered selves and our newly tethered world. She speaks of a time when we used to sing songs, chit chat over a crumpets, and tea and play house all throughout our adolescent years. Okay, she didn’t go that far, but you all know what I am getting at. So rather than joining Turkle in her negative rants about the “nostalgia of the young” I have decided to praise our tethered selves and discuss the nostalgia of when I first began texting and utilizing the internet.

Can you recall the day you learned how to create and send out a text? Or the day you received your first text message? I can recall the very first person I had a text conversation with; I remember feeling giddy, tech savvy, and full of excitement.

My first finger conversation was with a boy I went to high school with; we had a past, but had lost touch over some time. Because of a single text message, a text message of simple words, “hey how are you?” the boy and I were able to rekindle an old flame. Talk about exhilarating.

 

When I think back at the beginning stages of texting, I still get thrilled. It was new and freeing. I wasn’t faced with the horror of actually speaking over the phone or in person, with the individual I liked or maybe didn't like. I don’t know if you were all as shy as me as a teenager, or young adult, but boy-oh-boy my face turned into an instant tomato as soon as I was approached or approached someone I was crushing on. It was embarrassing and exhausting. I always felt I needed to pre-plan a scripted conversation in my head before actually speaking.

 

With that said, the popularizing of the text message allowed me come out of my shell. I began to develop a sense of confidence, and was more at ease not only messaging people but talking to them face-to-face as well. I believe that the progression of text messaging has really helped in developing my personality; I suppose it became part of me as well, an important part of me.

“We have seen young people walk the halls of their schools composing messages to online acquaintances they will never meet. We have seen them feeling more alive when connected, then disoriented and alone when they leave their screens. Some live more than half their waking hours in virtual places.” (265)

Turkle discusses the excitement one feels when they are connected, she claims that “some live more than half their walking hours in virtual places” I believe this to be true, but I do not see a fault in it. Turkle then goes on to explain how when unconnected- we are “disoriented” and “alone.” She expresses her concern: when unconnected we feel out of the loop, or like she said, “alone.” I can relate; I definitely see how one could feel this way. Have you ever lost your phone and had to live a week or so with out it? It seriously turns you into a crazy person; I do not believe this to be a negative feeling though. In today’s society it is becoming the norm to be virtually connected at all times, and this is not going to change. We need to take it in stride and progress with new ideas and new social networks that will keep us grounded, yet connected.

 

I not only have reminiscent feelings of nostalgia with texting, but I also have nostalgia for early social networks.

 

One of the very first websites I spent a significant amount of time at was on TFLN also known as "texts from last night." Is it a coincidence that I both started texting and reading about people texting at the same time? I’m not sure. Some could argue that TFLN came much later than text messaging; I guess I was a late bloomer. For those of you who are not familiar with TFLN, it is a website based off of text submissions. People submit funny, gross, inappropriate and totally random text messages they have received or have sent out. For example:

(813): The last thing I remembered was laying in the bathtub fully clothed with the shower running while he was picking grilled cheese out of my hair. I couldn't figure out if i was more upset about being soaking wet or the fact that my grilled cheese was in my hair instead of my mouth. (TFLN)

I can remember spending hours on the website, laughing, sharing, re-texting the submitted texts to my friends etc. I was obsessed with the fact that you could submit a text, share it with others, and then re-text it to even more people. I would send out mass texts of the texts I was reading online… I loved it. This obsession sparked the social networking "panda" inside of me; after this I began looking harder into different websites, blogs etc. This is when I discovered lolcats.com

Now it's hard to describe lolcats in words. It sounds very childish and immature, but if I had to give a definition of the website I would say it’s a portfolio of cat photographs with horribly phrased captions ("grammatically incorrect," if you will) that are completely hilarious. Only pictures do this site justice.

(Donotwant Lolcats)

So along with spending hours upon hours text messaging, I also spent hours on TFLN and then on lolcats: I texted my friends about texts from last night; I texted my friends about lolcats and forwarded pictures; I shared texts from last night on facebook; I shared my favorite lolcats photos on facebook; I emailed my friends both of these websites and also texted them the links to these websites, if I hadn’t discussed the sites with them before.

As you can see, I get extremely nostalgic daydreaming about my beginning days of texting, and my favorite new social networking websites. For me, I linked them all together to ultimately create a super massive collaboration of Amanda’s likes. I liked texting, reading about texts, texting about cats and seeing pictures of cats. I got connected in a way that I will never forget: I started a relationship solely because of a text message, and I entertained myself by reading dirty texts and looking at ridiculous cats whenever I could. I daydream about that beginning technology and cyber-stage of my life. 

Bring it on, Turkle.


Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic Books, 2011. Print.

http://www.textsfromlastnight.com/

http://www.lolcats.com/

http://www.facebook.com/

Robot Apocalypse

A few years ago, the computer science department at our university was holding a “computer science day” to recruit high school students. During this time, I was assisting a professor in the Computer Science department who had received a grant for five robots to develop a multi-agent system paradigm. My job was to help program these robots so that they could communicate with each other to avoid obstacles, navigate around a room autonomously, and be controlled remotely by an operator. These were simple tasks to accomplish, and were the early stages of a much larger project.

The robots look like the machines pictured in this post. Human appearance was not reflected in the design – just a machine that cruised around on wheels. Each robot contained six sonar sensors. With a little bit of programming, the sensors allowed the robots to determine the distance between them and an obstacles in their path. This helped the robots communicate with each another to avoid collisions when navigating autonomously. If a human wished to intervene, we designed a touch-screen tablet that an operator could use to control the robots remotely, and the human could see what they “see” through a webcam mounted on the robot. This allowed the operator to navigate the machines around even if he or she was not in the same room.

We gave this technology to high school students during computer science day, because the robots were fun to use and we thought students would find them entertaining. During the demonstration, sometimes the robots' sonar ping would travel through a wall and hit the studs, throwing off the distance the robots calculated between themselves and the wall. As a result, the robots sometimes rammed into walls at full speed and made a few (additional) holes in Faner Hall.

The emotional impact on everyone was different. High school students, and us, winced when the robots slammed the wall, but for different reasons. Unlike the high school students, we didn't want the robots damaged primarily because they were expensive. The robots also had value to us because we spent a lot of time working with them. Nothing more. The robots were simply machines. It wasn't the same “feeling” of being intensely connected with non-living objects, as many individuals described in Sherry Turkle's book Alone Together. The robot was programmed to conduct simple tasks, and it just needed to work at the end of the day.

The high school students in attendance felt a bit different. The ability to control the robots was exciting, and they didn't want to lose a source of entertainment. Some high school students probably saw a robot slamming against a wall as serious excitement, especially when it created a new hole. When our robots had a collision, the unintended disruption caused many high school students to want to take control of the robots. A connection developed between the people wanting to compete over who could operate the robots most effectively, and not necessarily the connection between humans and machines themselves. In this case, the technology helped facilitate bonding and built friendships in the form of competition. It was healthy. To the high school students, I suspect watching the robots accidentally slam into the walls was a healthy and safe way to relieve some aggression indirectly – similar to why people watch boxing or aggressive sports. I also suspect that if Sherry Turkle was reading this post, she would probably express her legitimate concern to me and disagree completely, claiming these actions are destructive to society.

Later, when the robots were navigating autonomously, we programmed them to avoid obstacles and each other. Students often took this as an opportunity to walk into a group of robots operating autonomously, curious how the machines would react. As expected, the robots tried to move quickly out the way and avoid the students and each other, but the students also had to move to avoid them in the chaos. Both the operator and the robot would manipulate each others actions in a response to a disturbance. The high school students seemed to enjoy this the most. Perhaps it was the mystery of the robot that they found intriguing. It makes me question if the “connection” that Sherry Turkle mentions between humans and robotics would remain once the novelty diminished. Much like a human relationship, it's likely to get boring if it remains predicable. As a programmer, I knew how the machine would react, so perhaps my perception of the robot was different than what the high school students felt.

We also programmed the robots to follow people that came within a certain distance. The robots provided attention to the high school students and responded to their behavior and interactions by following them. When the occasional pedestrian member passed by too close to our demonstration, the robots would stop following the high school students and would begin to follow the pedestrian instead. At first it was amusing because this was completely unexpected. Innocent bystanders were suddenly in control of our robots. Some bystanders were anxious because they accidentally influenced the demonstration. Others enjoyed being the center of attention. Realizing this, students began to compete for control over who could get the most robots to follow them. It was a competition, and connection, between people... not humans and machine.

This robot demonstration was on my mind when reading Sherry Turkle's book Alone Together. As programmers, when the robots hit a wall, sometimes we just felt bad because of the potential loss of value in the robot and the time put into it. It was like a car... we work hard to pay for our vehicles and feel terrible when they get rear ended in a parking lot. We felt the same when the robots had a collision, which is why I found it so difficult to relate to Turkle's stories. When students had the attention of the robot, there was a feeling of satisfaction because of the human interactions that took place. These interactions were facilitated by the use of technology, and it was healthy – even when things went wrong. When that attention was lost, there was disappointment. Communication, even with objects, can play with our emotions in many unexpected ways. The outcome isn't always terrible, either.

Our Life in Photographs: the Art of Remembering or Technological Distraction?

Flickr, a popular photo uploading and sharing website, receives over 4,800 images a day that are shot with Apple's iPhone 4. In fact, the iPhone 4 is currently topping the charts as the most popular camera among Flickr users (out-shooting Nikon's popular D90 DSLR.)

With the rise in popularity of cell phones with cameras and small, user-friendly digital cameras, it is no wonder that almost everywhere we go, we can witness someone taking a picture, or have our picture taken. Since cameras of all varieties can now fit in our purses and even our pockets, we can use them to capture any and every daily moment, and many of us do. I am interested in exploring here our desire to record our lives through our abundant and very present technological devices.

Sherry Turkle, author of the book Alone Together, refers to this phenomenon as "life capture." She writes, "These days, anyone with a smart phone (equipped with a camera and/or video recorder) is close to having a portable archivist. And indeed, many say that when they don't use their mobile phone to document their lives, they feel remiss, guilty for not doing so" (pp. 299-300).

The desire to record our life experiences (and the concerned response over this constant archiving) is nothing new. During my senior year of college, I embarked upon an adventure called "Europe Semester" with fifty other students and three professors from my university. In three and a half months we visited twelve countries with one suitcase, and little technology (compared to what we might have brought now in 2011.) With no laptops, a few iPods and digital cameras, and even fewer cell phones, many of us (including myself) furiously recorded our experiences in our handwritten journals and on our film cameras. Even without much technology, I often felt distracted by my own desire to record all of my experiences. (I have to admit, sometimes I would even visit a point of interest and imagine how the layout of photographs and ticket stubs would appear in my scrapbook.) However, even though I was often thinking of my scrapbook layouts, I don't believe that I experienced those moments and places any less, just simply through a different lens. To some, capturing and recording a place or event through technology allows them to experience the space more richly and with new artistic perspectives.

CS Lewis writes in The Great Divorce, "If you're interested in the country only for the sake of painting it, you'll never learn to see the country." Here he questions if we are truly experiencing the places, people, and events of our lives to the fullest if we are caught up in the business of recording it all. I appreciate this point and wonder about the distraction and possible burden that life recording may cause. I also know that I am very thankful for the photographs and journal entries that serve as the only tangible memories of this college experience.

I am drawn to the ways that photographs serve as a method, an art, of remembering. Several web-based photographic collaboration projects speak to the ways photographs preserve moments in time. "Dear Photograph" is a new tumblr that curates submissions of photographs that juxtapose older photographs, and the space and time in which they were taken, with that same space in a current context (see example below). Check out the tumblr to read the sweet/moving/nostalgic photo captions. Artist Jason Powell takes on a similar concept in his Flickr series titled, "Looking into the Past." However, instead of using personal photographs, he has chosen to use images from the Library of Congress as his subject matter. He has also created a group on Flickr, which allows others interested in a similar process of remembering to upload and share their photographs as well.

I love the way Frederick Buechner, in his compilation of essays titled A Room Called Remember, describes the process of remembering as an important and intentional practice:

"But there is a deeper need yet . . . —not all the time, surely, but from time to time—to enter that still room within us all where the past lives on as a part of the present, where the dead are alive again, where we are most alive ourselves to turnings and to where our journeys have brought us. The name of the room is Remember—the room where with patience, with charity, with quietness of heart, we remember consciously to remember the lives we have lived." - Frederick Buechner

I know, without a doubt, that my own practice of remembering is aided by the photographs that I (or my friends and family) have taken. Photographs elicit memories of moments and experiences that vanished too quickly to be written down. For a short time at least, photographs can bring back emotions, people, or places as we once experienced them. Photographs are an important part of the art of remembering.

However, our drive to constantly archive our lives through our technological devices brings several issues into question. First, Sherry Turkle is concerned that through our "life capture," we might slowly lose the ability to remember. She writes, "If technology remembers for us, will we remember less? Will we approach our own lives from a greater distance?" (p. 300). If we only remember a person or experience when the photograph appears on our screen saver or Facebook wall, have we missed the work, the intentionality of remembering that Buechner writes about? What becomes lost, when we forget how to remember?

Turkle also suggests that our desire to keep up with our own life archive is not only an act of remembering, but also an act of seeking validation. Many of us might send our iPhone pictures straight to Twitter or Facebook, in order to immediately share our experiences with our friends. Turkle writes, "But these days, the photograph is not enough. Sending implies being" (p. 302). We wait with anticipation for a friend's vacation photos to appear on our Facebook feed. If they never appear, we wonder if our friend lost their phone, or maybe even that their trip plans got canceled. This might cause one to wonder, if we didn't photograph it, were we really there?

Others are concerned about the distraction that constant life capture through digital photography devices may cause. A recent article by the author of the popular blog Off Beat Bride describes how some couples are electing to have an "unplugged wedding," asking guests to not use their cameras or electronic devices for a certain portion of time during the day, or not at all. The author, Ariel, writes, "Welcome to the era of the over-documented wedding, where, even if you've hired someone to take photos, every guest has a camera and an iPhone and is tweeting the whole event. They're there with you, but are they really present?" Off Beat Bride also offers "copy 'n' paste" ideas for wording on programs and signs to inform guests politely of the unplugged policy.

Susan Sontag, author, director, and activist, wrote in her book On Photography: "Photography has become one of the principle devices for experiencing something, for giving an appearance of participation . . .Our very sense of situation is now articulated by the camera’s interventions. The omnipresence of cameras persuasively suggests that time consists of interesting events, events worth photographing" (p. 10-11). Turkle would probably agree with Sontag here, as she completes her book Alone Together on the last page by questioning if the archived life is truly living?

I end here with a couple of questions for us to think about: What drives our desire to archive our lives through technology? What might we gain or what might we miss as we capture experiences through our abundant and ever-present technological devices? And last, do you view this phenomenon as an art of remembering or a technological distraction, or somewhere in between?

Image Credits (in order of appearance):
1. Derren Raser
2. Leslie Kalbfleisch via Dear Photograph
3. Nora and Tony of Aurora Photography via Off Beat Bride

Works Cited:
Buechner, Frederick. A Room Called Remember: Uncollected Pieces. San Francisco: Harper, 1992. Print.
Lewis, C. S. The Great Divorce. New York: Macmillan, 1946. Print.
Sontag, Susan. On Photography. New York : Farrer, Straus and Giroux, 1977. Print.
Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic Books, 2011. Print.