Introduction
First, some reading/writing suggestions:
- I really would recommend that, as you read (or re-read) prior to writing your response, you capture (however you prefer) questions, concepts, comments you have about the ideas presented, quotations striking to you, etc.. That process of collection will render your writing of your response so much easier, even if it means you take a little longer to read the article. Just as importantly, it will provide a trove of ideas and questions you can subsequently raise in class.
- As you read, mark any ideas with which you disagree, but keep reading with an open mind. You don't have to agree with everything an individual argues or, indeed, anything s/he argues, to gain a great deal (from basic information of which you were unaware to concepts which allow you to make sense of other readings or other experiences). One of the easiest ways to disengage from a text is to say to ourselves "I don't agree with this," or "I don't like this" or, the very worst, "This was long/boring." Often we thus let glib dismissive comments stand in for real thinking and analysis.
- Use specific quotations to help you discuss a particular idea or concept, or thread in an argument. Learning to identify and discuss meaningful quotations in the analysis of an argument or a set of ideas can help you demonstrate the quality of your analytical thinking.
- As the semester progresses, identify and describe connections you see between individual thinkers' ideas, perspectives, approaches, kinds of evidence cited, and uses of evidence. At the same time, relate the perspectives and information you encounter to your existing knowledge and own experiences, and work out how new perspectives and analyses influence, modify or change your perceptions of everyday (and not-so-everyday) realities.
Ideas and new knowledge remain so many dead words/images on a page/screen until you expend genuine effort to achieve these connections.
Reading Response #1
(Due Date: 23 September)
The readings for these first weeks of the semester explore the barriers to our understanding and interpreting of information. They also investigate the barriers (visible & invisible) to our analysis of the political, cultural, social, economic and personal significance of changes in the nature, quantity, quality, and pervasiveness of information in our environments. You should post your response in an online environment of your own choice.
Some options you might explore for this first reading response are:
- identify similarities and/or differences between the ideas of the writers you have encountered. Then analyze the significance of your observations, for you as an individual or for local or national or international communities to which you belong
- apply your understanding of the readings to explore and analyze your own experiences of working and living with digital information. The data from your Digital Information Diary should assist you here.
- focus on an argument or series of arguments which you still do not understand well. Dwell in that uncertainty and explore it. What are the barriers to your understanding? How are you surmounting them? To what extent are ideas challenging because you do not understand them, and to what extent are they challenging because they disturb your existing perceptions on a subject/area of life?
- identify & discuss ideas or arguments or claims in the readings that surprised you, and explain in detail why were you surprised, and what the significance of that surprise might be (again with reference to the ideas contained in the readings you choose to discuss.
- apply the key ideas of at least two authors to your professional or work environments. For example, to what extent does the rhetoric of inevitability toward new information and communication technologies pervade your workspaces and how might it influence practices there? What "myths" about information and communication technologies (from those Mosco discusses) animate your organization or emerge in the conversations of your co-workers? What areas appear at risk of the information handling mistakes Burns itemizes, and so on
- explore the links between readings for this leanring community and those you have completed in the past or are reading now for other classes or learning communities.. You may also include leisure reading, if relevant. For example, I can see the application of Myth and Cyberspace to science fiction author's oeuvre or to a single novel being quite productive.
- develop your own thread of analysis and response
Finally, although you are composing in a digital environment, all the usual conventions of academic discourse apply (sorry!). You need to include citations in-text for all quotations and summaries (but remember that composing online offers you some inventive routes to including these), and don't forget a list of works cited or reference list. It won't be long, but there's no harm in practicing the academic form that allows others interested in your ideas to follow up in turn your references for more information. If you have any questions, let me know as soon as possible.