Chapter 26:

This chapter was very interesting to read, and incredibly valuable for those of us in the Prof/Tech field. I was very impressed with the insights that the book offered. From the challenges you'll face as a writer to actually getting the job, it was all there. I appreciated the section on networking. That is one valuable tool that is talked about more and more as time goes on. Plus, the book even gives some networking sites applicable to students, beginners and those in our designated field. I appreciated reading this chapter as we all begin to look for opportunities to learn and grow outside of the student realm.
This has been a fun class. I gained so much information from the class and my peers. Good luck to each of you in your individual endevours! Oh the places we'll go! ☺

Stories that Speak to Us

"We don’t always know what literacy experiences they bring to the classroom; we don’t know how or why they learn best; we don’t always know what identities they have forged for themselves as literate individuals, and we don’t know how these identities might affect the instruction we provide."

I liked this paragraph in the last assigned article. Students, and people in general, all learn so differently. This acknowledges and verifies this clearly. This was a fun article, because again, it was more personal. When telling stories of ourselves, we are sharing our history. But we can also become whoever we want to be. Personal narratives give us this opportunity.

Alice In Wikiland

I enjoyed the fact that this author was much more personal in her writing. The fact that she used Alice as a comparison to the new student was fantastic. It was easy to view this confused new student because people have a reference to Alice. This made the entire paper more understandable.
As I read on I was interested in her ideas of the concepts she was writing about. The audience section gave a good definition of the audience, one that I had not previously thought of before. The author wrote, "Audience, defined in its broadest terms, is the body of readers who will interpret a text (for a wiki is a text-driven community). This body of readers can be imaginary or real, explicit or implicit." The most eye-opening part of that, for me, was the "imaginary or real." I have never thought of an "imaginary" audience. Yet, for those writing on the internet, how many people imagine who might be reading their blog? Probably quite a few.

The Evolution of Writing

This article uses the word "cognative" over and over and over again. And in reading it I felt like a less cognative human being. Confession: I was confused. Although I felt better when the author wrote, "For what it's worth, a cognitive scientist reading this would be as equally perplexed as a rhetorician might." Since I am neither, I guess that gives me full permission to be "perplexed."
 hat I took from this article is that writing,and the rhetoric displayed through it, is important and memorable. In having online outlets to write and share, we are continuoulsy able to retain information by words associated with images and even the placement of the writing.
The article also talks a lot about "constants" in writing and rhetoric. Through technology, that constant is certainly changing.

Opening New Media to Writing

I think one of the main ideas that I took from this excerprt was the idea of NEW being different, and obviously altering the way we think. But even though she relates this idea to a rug being pulled out from under you, I don't think it's a bad thing. On page 1 she quotes from the author of Writing Space who says, "What will be lost is not literacy itself, but the literacy of print, for electronic technology offers us a new kind of book and new ways to read and write."  So again, the idea of NEW not as a bad thing, but just different. And in those differences are many possibilities for the future of readers, writers and teachers.

The Museum of Me

I found this article VERY interesting and well-written. I would like to answer the question that asks, "How does the Internet MEDIATE these people's work or social relationships?"

The answer to this question is directly related to a paragraph on page 642 of Ullmen's article. The internet removes the physical mediator from our lives. Where we use to need a travel agent, real-estate agent, insurance agent, sales clerk or even teacher, the internet has now replaced that. The internet is now the mediator and we take on those roles for ourselves. I recently went to Las Vegas for a weekend and used a site I had never used to find a great deal on a hotel. I did this instead of using a travel agent or even picking up my phone to call for prices of a hotel. I found a great deal and had a great weekend. ☺

Chapter 15 or 16 Blog Post?

Hi Jessica, We missed your post for Chapter 15 or 16 this week. Please keep up with future assignments announced in class. Dr. B =)

Chapter 14:

In reading through these different case studies, it is interesting to see how there are many similarities in the development process. Yet, there are also so many differences depending on the objective and audience of the product. I found it interesting in this particular case study of the Nauticus Ship Building Company, the target audience was diversity and short attention spans. This stood out to me, due to the fact that these are not the normal target audience one is use to seeing. For this company, and this museum kiosk, I think it was a well thought-out idea to target those specific audiences. It was a very intruiquite chapter and I'm excited to hear more about it in class.

Chapter 11

This chapter was a case study of the Corporate Website, T. Rowe Price I thought it was interesting to learn more about the basic categories of websites as well as the types of commercial websites.

The 5 basic categories of websites are:
1) Personal
2) Educational
3) Governmental
4) Entertainment
5) Commercial

The types of commercial websites are:
Transactional: Order merchandise and perform trasactions
Consumer: Promotional, highly visual, but does not offer much information
Marcom: Marketing communication, lots of information about a company
Content: Extensive information on a product

Chapter 5

My favorite line from this chapter in the text was this sentence: "It is essential for writers to present their ideas effectively on paper so that clients and production team members can visualize their ideas."

This chapter was important to read before writing the script. It was great to get an idea of the many different types of scripts and ways they can be written. I was also interested to find that there is actual scripting software.  Although, like the text said, that software is not essential to actually writing a script, although some people swear by them.
I appreciated the tips in this chapter to writing a script. I'm sure to use this as a tool in helping me as I write my own.

Chapter 7:

For this chapter I thought it would be useful to highlight the informational goals.

1) To Persuade

2) To Entertain

3) To Enable Transactions

4) To Create A Sense of Community

5) To Inform

6) To Teach

I also liked the concluding paragraph where the text book says, "By clearly defining your user and goals, you can then use the most effective techniques to achieve those goals." So before writing my informational proposal I am determined to know the exact users and goals the site is meant to achieve. By doing this I hope to be more successful in the project.

Chapter 4:

This was a very interesting chapter. As a writer it's easy to get caught up in your own work. When working on a multimedia project, you will often, if not always, have a team to work with. Reading this chapter gives great insight into the exact members of the team, who they will be, and what their jobs will entail. There are many possible production team members, which means that working collaboratively is going to be a necessary skill in the world of multimedia writing.

Chapter 1:

Thinking interactively and knowing the user were key points in this chapter that I found interesting. Thinking interactively referred to the different mindset one has to have in working with multimedia. There is not one option. As a writer or designer you have to be open to the many options that your user may have, which then plays into knowing the user well. If you are well acquainted with the user of the product, you will then be successful in creating options, giving information, and making a product that will be valuable to them.

Digital Autobiography

I first learned to use the computer in elementary school. I attended school at one of the better public schools in the Alpine  School Distric in Orem, Utah. The school had an incredible computer lab, with close to 50 Apple computers, where we were required to take keyboarding starting in the 4th grade. The best part of the class was playing Oregon Trail once we had finished our keyboarding assignments.

It wasn't until high school that I started using the internet. Remember dial up through AOL? I took one class in high school where we used the internet on a fairly regular basis. I also got my first email address in high school, athought I didn't really  use it until I started college.

Social networking started for me after I had been married about 3.5 years, and had a new baby at home. I had more time on my hands to explore all that the internet had to offer. I started a myspace account first, and in 2007 I started a Facebook account and rarely, if ever, log on to myspace.

The internet and the ability to get online support has changed everything. That point is being made as I currently sit at a computer desk, writing a blog post on the internet as my first assignment.