i-Anya

Thanks to Rebecca again (!) I’ve just seen this great youtube video about web 2.0 and digital text. This is a really nice way of explaining some of the new ways writing and literacy have developed in digital spaces.

Call for Proposals: NMC Online Conference on the Convergence of Web Culture and Video

March 21-22, 2007

Proposals for presentations for the NMC Online Conference on the Convergence of Web Culture and Video, a special 2-day, live, online event to be held March 21-22, 2007 entirely via the Internet, are being solicited through February 23.

See http://www.nmc.org/events/2007spring_online_conf/proposals.shtml for full details.

Video as we know it, produced by experts and consumed by viewers, is metamorphosing into a different genre altogether, blurring the lines between producers and audiences. New video-based forms of self-expression are emerging, with notable examples like video mashups, jumpcuts, and video blogging. Nonlinear narratives abound in this format, in which stories unfold across a series of 1 to 3-minute clips and web viewers are drawn into mysteries such as the story of Lonelygirl15. Brand-new forms like machinima are emerging that bridge virtual worlds, gaming, and storytelling, all through the medium of the small video.

We are seeing the emergence of a production culture, one where, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, more than 48% of American adults have published content on the Internet. For this generation, video is becoming the medium of choice for content and expression, and as the video shrinks in both program length and physical size, the way we think about video is changing significantly. The 100 million-plus examples on YouTube (and the company’s $1.65 billion price tag) and the nearly 1 million videos on Ourmedia are, for the most part, nowhere near the quality of professional video, but the sheer numbers of viewers who watch them is clear evidence of the compelling nature of the form.

A key factor in the rise of the new video is that production, access and distribution are easier than ever before. A variety of new viewing devices, including Internet-enabled mobile phones, easily record digital video, and posting those videos to the web has become a trivial matter. The explosion of new content is enabled by cheap and easy- to- use equipment as well as new web-based editing and production software.

Join keynoters Henry Jenkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Angela Thomas, University of Sydney, and Cynthia Calongne, Colorado Technical University, for this 2-day examination of the convergence of web culture and video.

The singular focus of this gathering is to consider how these developments are impacting our lives, and how they are affecting the ways we work, learn, collaborate, and even socialize. The conference is designed to spark an examination that explores both the positive and negative aspects of this phenomenon on learning, social interaction, self-expression, and more.

The conference will be conducted entirely online. Sessions, which will be conducted live, can incorporate a variety of visuals and rich media, and are generally about 45 minutes in length, with about half that time devoted to dialog with participants using voice over IP.

Proposals are encouraged on the topic in any of the following areas, but this list is not exhaustive and selections will not be limited to these categories:

* Cultural impacts and trends
* Reflections on identity, self-image and new forms of expression
* Tools and techniques
* Learning applications
* Student-produced content
* Pedagogical potentials and implications

Proposals may be submitted online at http://www.nmc.org/events/2007spring_online_conf/proposals.shtml

This event is the ninth in the ongoing series of specially focused online gatherings that explore new ideas and issues related to technology and learning. The NMC Series of Online Conferences is itself an exploration of emerging forms of collaboration and tools, and this particular conference will focus on ways in which the conference sessions can each be highly interactive, in real time.

Additional information about the conference can be found at http://www.nmc.org/events/2007spring_online_conf/

Posts will be made here when the registration period opens on March 1.

Please circulate this announcement to any and all areas on campus that may be interested in participating.

Larry Johnson from the New Media Consortium has invited me to participate in an online conference in March. I am thrilled that I will be presenting in any context with prolific writer and expert on all new media and culture phenomena, Henry Jenkins!

Here’s my title and abstract - comments welcome while I construct my talk over the next couple of weeks!

TITLE

DESCRIPTION

I will begin this talk with a discussion of how youtube and video blogging have become a mediating space for what Sherry Turkle calls “evocative objects”: objects, or in this case spaces, that we use to think about ourselves. I argue that the act of viewing ones-self in public performances, and acknowledging public commentary on those acts, provides dual reflective lenses which serve to reconstruct, reinvent and redefine one’s identity. To demonstrate I discuss a number of examples in which the nature of the autobiographical is countered and transformed through the performance of self for the public.

Next I will draw on Senft’s notion of “the aesthetic of the grab” - a way of re-articulating the dynamics of spectatorship and participation in new video communities. I will discuss the notion of commodity fetishism and the ways in which “grabbing” bits and pieces of other people’s video performances is then being reconstituted into one’s own performances of identity. This includes but goes beyond one’s amusement at memes, desire for a shared cultural context and networked solidarity, in that it presents a “shopping for truth” about one’s place in the world. It also includes the notion that what is public and telepresent can be owned and manipulated for one’s own desires.

Finally I will raise the question about what it might mean for the millions of youth participants in youtube and videoblogging with respect to ethics, consequences and reputation management in an age where the personal is political.

Skyping at 2:45am for me, we begin to map out our workshop for this conference. Here’s the overview for the conference program…

Embodiment in Virtual Environments: Exploring Literacies, Identity, Research, and Community

Charles Kinzer, mathematics, science, and technology, Teachers College, Columbia University
Angela Thomas, University of Sydney

An increasing number of scholars, researchers, game/educational designers, and reporters in the popular press are writing about the economic, educational, and personal aspects of a virtual life online. Communities form and disband, individuals join or are excluded, and people can take very personally the virtual environments that they present, either intentionally or unintentionally, to others. With crossover from the “real” to the virtual (and the opposite) being an area of research and providing the underpinning for transfer of learning across real and virtual boundaries, educational opportunities and issues related to literacy, broadly defined, are being foregrounded.

Participants in this workshop will enter a virtual world, tour environments within that world, meet people and consider issues pertaining to research in such environments. The workshop format allows discussion and consideration of possibilities as well as presentation of some current activities. Thus, in keeping with the workshop format, the session will range from a presentation and consideration of issues related to virtual environments to hands-on tours and examination of applications in Second Life. We will meet others in-world, see how education might be facilitated, and consider embodiment and reality with spaces that exist electronically and perceptually.

See Rebecca, that’s how I manage to be involved in several projects at once, planning meetings at 2:45 am Who else here thinks I am crazy?

Goodness! Don Leu just sent me the massive outline of chapters for a handbook I contributed to about research in New Literacies, and its going to be an amazing collection of chapters. Look!!!!! Its an honour to be in such great company. The Handbook is due out in June or July, and it promises to be substantial in more ways than one.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE HANDBOOK OF RESEARCH IN NEW LITERACIES

Editors:

Julie Coiro, University of Connecticut
Michele Knobel, Montclair State University
Colin Lankshear, James Cook University
Donald J. Leu, University of Connecticut

INTRODUCTION

Central Issues In New Literacies And New Literacies Research

Julie Coiro, University of Connecticut
Michele Knobel, Montclair State University
Colin Lankshear, James Cook University
Donald J. Leu, University of Connecticut

SECTION I. METHODOLOGIES

An Introduction To Methodologies

Toward A Connective Ethnography Of Online/Offline Literacy Networks
Kevin M. Leander, Vanderbilt University, USA

Large-Scale Quantitative Survey Research On New Technology Uses
Ron Anderson, University of Minnesota, USA

Converging Traditions Of Research On Media And Information Literacies: Disciplinary, Critical, And Methodological Issues
Sonia Livingstone, Elizabeth Van Couvering, and Nancy Thumim, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

The Conduct Of Qualitative Interviews: Research Questions, Methodological Issues, And Researching Online
Lori Kendall, University of Illinois, USA

The Case Of Rebellion: Researching Multimodal Texts
Andrew Burn, Institute of Education, University of London, UK

Experimental And Quasi-Experimental Approaches To The Study Of New Literacies
Jonna Kulikowich, The Pennsylvania State University, USA

SECTION II. KNOWLEDGE AND INQUIRY

An Introduction To Knowledge And Inquiry

Learning, Change, And Power: Competing Frames Of Technology And Literacy
Mark Warschauer, University of California, Irvine, USA
Paige Ware, Southern Methodist University, USA

The Web As A Source Of Information For Students In K-12 Education
Els Kuiper and Monique Volman, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Where Do We Go Now? Understanding Research On Navigation In Complex Digital Environments
Kim Lawless, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
P.G. Schrader, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA

The Changing Landscape Of Text And Comprehension In The Age Of New Literacies
Bridget Dalton, Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), USA
C. Patrick Proctor, Boston College, USA

Exploring Culture In The Design Of New Technologies Of Literacy
Patricia Young, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA

Multimedia Literacy
Richard Mayer, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Multiliteracies And Metalanguage: Describing Image/Text Relations As A Resource For Negotiating Multimodal Texts
Len Unsworth, University of New England, Australia

SECTION III. COMMUNICATION

An Introduction To Communication

Mediating Technologies And Second Language Learning
Steven Thorne, The Pennsylvania State University, USA

Of A Divided Mind: Weblog Literacy
Torill Elvira Mortensen, Volda University College, Norway

People, Purposes, And Practices: Insights From Cross-Disciplinary Research Into Instant Messaging
Gloria E. Jacobs, St. John Fisher College, USA

Gender In Online Communications
Jonathan Paul Marshall, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

SECTION IV. POPULAR CULTURE, COMMUNITY, AND CITIZENSHIP: EVERYDAY LITERACIES

An Introduction To Popular Culture, Community, And Citizenship: Everyday Literacies

Intersections of Popular Culture, Identities, And New Literacies Research
Margaret C. Hagood, College of Charleston, USACollege Students And New Literacy Practices
Dana J. Wilber, Montclair State University, USA

Just Don’t Call Them Cartoons: The New Literacy Spaces Of Animé, Manga, And Fanfiction
Rebecca Ward Black, University of California, Irvine, USA

Cognition And Literacy In Massively Multiplayer Online Games
Constance A. Steinkuehler, University of Wisconsin—Madison, USA

Video Game Literacy: A Literacy Of Expertise
Kurt D. Squire, University of Wisconsin—Madison, USA

Community, Culture And Citizenship In Cyberspace
Angela Thomas, University of Sydney, Australia

New Literacies And Community Inquiry
Bertram C. Bruce and Ann P. Bishop, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

SECTION V. INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES AND ASSESSMENT

An Introduction To Instructional Practices And Assessment

Digital Writing In The Early Years
Guy Merchant, Sheffield Hallam University, UK

Teaching Popular Culture Texts In The Classroom
Richard Beach and David O’Brien, University of Minnesota, USA

Using New Media In The Secondary English Classroom
Ilana Snyder, Monash University
Scott Bulfin, Australia Learning Management Systems

The Price Of Information: Critical Literacy, Education, And Today’s Internet
Bettina Fabos, Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, USA

Researching Multimodal Literacy
Pippa Stein, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa

Multimodal Reading And Comprehension In Online Environments
Claire-Wyatt Smith and John Elkins, Griffith University, Australia

New Literacies In Math And Science
Edys Quellmalz and Geneva Haertel, Center for Technology in Learning, SRI International, USA

Virtual Learning Environments: A Higher Education Focus
Colin Baskin and Neil Anderson, James Cook University, Australia

SECTION VI. MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES ON NEW LITERACIES RESEARCH

An Introduction To Multiple Perspectives On New Literacies

Savannah: Mobile Gaming And Learning? by K. Facer, R. Joiner, D. Stanton, J. Reid, R. Hull, & D. Kirk

Being a Lion And Being A Soldier: Learning And Games
James Paul Gee, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

Savannah: Mobile Gaming and Learning: A Review Commentary
Susan Goldman and Jim Pellegrino, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA

The Nature Of Middle School Learners? Science Content Understandings With The Use Of On-Line Resources by J.L Hoffman., H.-K Wu, J.S. Krajcik, & E. Soloway

Intertextuality and the Study of New Literacies: Research Critique and Recommendations
Peggy N. Van Meter and Carla Firetto, The Pennsylvania State University, USA

Internet Pedagogy: Using the Internet to Achieve Student Learning Outcomes
Bob Bleicher, California State University Channel Islands, USA

Instant Messaging, Literacies, and Social Identities by C. Lewis & B. Fabos

An Essay Review Of The Lewis & Fabos Article On Instant Messaging
Donna Alvermann, University of Georgia, USA

Thoughts On The Lewis & Fabos Article On Instant Messaging
David Reinking, Clemson University, USA

L2 literacy and the design of the self: A case study of a teenager writing on the Internet by W.S.E. Lam

Critical Review: “L2 Literacy and the Design of the Self: A Case study of a Teenager Writing on the Internet”
Catherine Beavis, Deakin University, Burwood, Australia

A Commentary On “L2 Literacy, Electronic Representation of Self, and Social Networking”
Richard Duran, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

The journey ahead: Thirteen teachers report how the Internet influences literacy and literacy instruction in their K–12 classrooms by R.A. Karchmer

Researching Technology And Literacy: Thirteen Ways Of Looking At A Blackboard
Colin Harrison, University of Nottingham, UK

Internet Literacy Influences: A Review of Karchmer (2001).
Jackie Marsh, The University of Sheffield, UK

I am so thrilled to be in communication with Barry Joseph of Global Kids, and to be learning more about the work that is being done with teens in Second Life. Their site, Holy Meatballs, is truly inspirational, full of texts, images and machinima that the kids have created. UNICEF’s voices of youth project featuring these kids is explained here, and is the subject of the video above. My friend and colleague Danielle Mirliss first raised my awareness of Global kids in her Slatenight article, Henry Jenkins has been to visit the kids there (with the support of the NMC), and I’ve been excitedly following along, looking forward to becoming much more involved myself. So stay tuned

Larry Johnson (aka Larry Pixel), the dynamic CEO of the New Media Consortium, has announced the further developments of NMC’s projects in Second Life. Yesterday he launched a new site, the NMC Virtual Worlds site:

and announced the expansion of the NMC virtual campus to a massive 29 sims:

Already boasting some gorgeous new builds including a machinima school and a space observatory, the sims are also beautifully landscaped to simulate oceans, mountains, lakes and rivers to provide a relaxing ambience for teaching and research in Second Life.

From what I can tell, Larry and the NMC are the largest non-profit organisation in Second Life and kindly provide the campus facilities for use to many educational organisations and individual educators like myself (I will be using the facilities to give a conference talk next month since I cannot personally attend the US conference).

Larry is also a spokesperson about the use of Virtual Worlds in education in association with the MacArthur Foundation, and was recently spotlighted with his article “Who’s Listening to the Avatars?”

NMC was behind the Impact of Digital Media Symposium last October, where I spoke about “The Avatar as Communication” as part of the Slatenight events presented in the Symposium. They continue to be the leading force in SL education and now have a huge staff of artists, builders, designers and educators working together to push the boundaries of all of the affordances of the virtual world for its creative and educational potential.

Due to a bit of luck in finding an embedded slide show for powerpoint presentations, I am uploading my Avatar as Communication slideshow here:

which goes with this podcast here

Because I did the talk using double page spreads, the slides should really be viewed in pairs (text on the LHS, image on RHS) to go with the podcast talk properly. But hopefully you get the idea!

I hated listening to myself speaking and couldn’t bear it after the first 5 minutes, so I apologise in advance for the fact that I was presenting after midnight in Australian time and was not at my most articulate!

But isn’t this is a VERY COOL new social application!!

Howard Rheingold was the keynote speaker at the NMC’s 12 day symposium on the Impact of Digital Media.

Listen to Howard Rheingold’s podcast here.

I am almost sufficiently recovered to blog about the continued events I have been involved in over the special 12 day NMC Symposium on The Impact of Digital Media.

Slatenight hosted a four hour series of events which, despite a few technical hitches, went really well. I am so pleased with how it all turned out!!

I started off the events by speaking about The Avatar as Communication. You can listen to the podcast version here.

Following my talk was a special kind of fashion show, where people were invited to showcase their unique identities and discuss their decisions and reasons behind constructing the avatar that they did. The podcast of this event is here.

Following this, Christy Dena spoke about Imaging Space, podcast here.

We had a panel discussion with some live musicians in SL who spoke about the SL live music scene. Ironically, there were some technical hitches with the audio so the podcast is brief but here.

Then we were entertained by the musicians with some live music from each in turn:

Mel Cheeky

Cybster DJ

and you can hear the music they played on the podcast here.

Next up was the incredible Dell Wilberg, who’s talk was entitled Future Perfect: Towards a Better Second Life. Using knowledge of trends in technology over the past several decades, Dell offered us an insight into what we might expect in our immediate future.

Very exciting indeed! Podcast here.

Finally we heard from Danielle Mirliss and Heidi Trotta who spoke about their work with Undergraduate students in Second Life: Engaging the Disengaged. It was fascinating to hear their experiences and to compare their thoughts with my own experiences with post-grads. The podcast is here.

And finally, at 4am, I gave a few brief closing remarks (podcast here).

In my closing remarks I mentioned that Christy was being interviewed in just a few hours time by the ABC media in Australia about Second Life, and here is the podcast for that (go Christy!!!).

The NMC blogging and recording of the four hour event was fantastic and my thanks go to Larry Pixel and CDB Barkley for inviting us to be a part of this very significant symposium. it was an honour and a thrill to be invited.

85 more photographs here, thanks also to Gary Hazlitt and NMC for many of the photographs in this set.

As part of the NMC’s 12 day symposium on the The Impact of Digital Media, last night (from midnight til 2am) I attended a live press conference run by the MacArthur Foundation. The press conference was held simulataneously in New York, and at the NMC campus in Second Life. It was a wonderful event and I felt privileged to be attending. I got to hear Mimi Ito and Henry Jenkins, and I even managed to get a question relayed from Second Life to the panellists in NY, which they generously responded to!! There’s two fantastic summaries of the event and what was said by Beth and Rik, a series of pictures taken from the NMC here, and a list of links to the audio and more media coverage at the NMC Observer blog. Meanwhile, here are a few of my favourite pics:

Listening to Mimi Ito:

Listening to Henry Jenkins:

The SL Crowd (That’s me sitting next to Christy in the front row!)

Listening to the President of the MacArthur Foundation, Jonathan Fanton, who announced a 50 million dollar funding roll out over the next 5 years to improve the research into the teaching of digital media, with the burning question: How is digital media changing the way that children learn and develop and what are the implications?

Tonight from midnight to 4am its my turn to speak! See my previous post for the list of events organised for this 4 hour session, it should be both stimulating and fun.