Category Archives: Reading Summary

A short summary.

Summary 6: Better Online Living through content Mode Ration

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King, Melissa. “Better Online Living Through Content Mode Ration”. Model view Culture 28, ( 14 October 2015), web. 6 March 2016.

The title of this article is Better Online Living Through Content Mode Ration written by Melissa King. The article is about how content control offers features like block and ignore functions, content/trigger warnings, block-lists and privacy options, which is helpful to people who need to moderate their time online. Some users may suffer from PTSD and need to avoid topics and people that trigger their anxiety. Post traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) can occur after you’ve been through a traumatic event. Other users may simply understand the limits of their patience and choose to make their online experience less irritating.  The other topic is about the argument against content control like how the reactions are out of .

Some of the users who use these tools are labeled as weak and sensitive. So the criticizing of social modern tools leaves users in a culture that pressures people to experience far more catastrophe. Any issues that arise becomes entirely the victims problem when their attacked online and how they need to” just deal with it”.  A good example of this would be cyber bullying. Content control is helpful in limiting the worst of these effects which can cause PTSD if it’s very severe or long enough.

One Major argument against content control it that people blow the abuse and harassment they receive out of proportions.  Also, how they should try to be “less sensitive”. The argument draws an informal parallel to Exposure Therapy, which is a type of therapy designed to combat severe anxiety through gradual and exposure to its source. Its not about having random internet strangers hurl insults and thetas and somewhat they want to become mentally durable. However, without controlled exposure some suffering from PTSD is likely to have their trauma magnified when face with trigger content.

Also, another argument against content control rely on the myth that it’s just mean words on the internet with no real threat to safety. The idea is that harassment can’t cause PTSD according to pop culture its something that only veterans can get. For example, licensed clinical psychologist/ professor of Psychologist Caleb Lack specializes in treating anxiety states that ” Bullying has long been known to have a severe impact on the mental health, particularly if the bullying is repeated and prolonged”, ” Yes, you can get PTSD from twitter”.  He also goes on to stat that its specifically the bullying or harassing that could lead to PTSD or PTSD symptoms. long-term exposure to threatening situations like harassment can for fact cause problems and is one of the major causes of PTSD.

Blacklists is one of the more recent content control to be added in direct response to hate groups. Like Gamergate, TERFs, and white supremacists. In response it has gathered vehement objection  and reproach of users, mostly using legal action. The most compelling argument comes from people who do not harass or threaten people, who are in “middle of the road” and paint both sides on the issue as unreasonable. Suggesting that dialogue is in order to solve the whole harassment problem.

 

Summary 5: Understanding Visual Rhetoric in Digital Writing Environments

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The title of this Article is Understanding Visual Rhetoric in Digital Writing Environments written by Mary Hocks. There are  two main topics of her article one is how visual rhetoric operate in academic hypertexts. The other one is the three key terms of Visual Digital Rhetoric: audience stance, transparency, and hybridity and how each effects the transformative process. Analyzing the three terms/ hypertexts on the article Monitoring Order and the television program Xena The Warrior Princess.

Visual Rhetoric also known as visual strategies is used for meaning and persuasion, its importance amplified by visual and interactive hypertext and media writing. Hypertext( non-sequential) writing is defined as the underlying concept defining the structure of the world wide web. For example, professional Anne Wysocki created a hypertext titled Monitoring Order and professional Christine Boese crafted a hypertext titled  ” The Ballad of the Internet Nutball”. Another example, is a website on the theater performance topic of colorblind produced by Spellman college students enrolled in a Shakespeare course.  Hock stated that by putting their work on the web, the students were creating ” New Knowledge For A Real Audience”. Also, since the appearance of hypertext and other new media it’s difficult to separate words from visuals or privilege one over the other

Audience Stance refers to the interaction of the audience with the online piece of writing and Aristotelian concept of ethos; the audience can effect the audience interaction with the website. Transparency refers to the way in which  the outline writing resembles the culturally familiar scenes with their own conventions. Which includes print, graphic, design, film, and web pages. Hybridity refers to the way online writing mingles visual and verbal elements in its overall presentation. Which can be the aesthetic response in online writers and in audience.  For example, Boese does a ethnography and analysis of the fans and cult like dedication to the television program Xena the Warrior Princess. She describes the audience stance as the opening screen though music, images, text, and hypertext structures.

Boese creates ethos that is engaged insider, co-participant, and scholarly investigator, that assumes an engaged online audience of fans. She also refers to the audience fans as the ” co-authors”. Her visual strategies are also important to her argument used to motivate and engage in the online culture called the Xenoverse. Yet Boese interface design is not very transparent offering an unfamiliar multidimensional structure, which takes advantage of non-linear hypertexual form. Using multiple frames, linking strategies, and multiple media. Bouese uses several forms of navigation like a  picture of Gabriele ( who is one the main characters and sidekick to Xena) that leads to the narrative reading texts.

Hocks demonstrates she knows that she addressing a knowledgeable professional audience. She begins her article by addressing the recently scholarly emphasis on ” the central role of the visual rhetoric for writers”. She also takes into account recent scholarly work that tries to combine rhetoric with hypertext by authors like Gary h. and Patricia Sullivan.

 

 

 

Hocks, Mary E. ” Understanding Visual Rhetoric in Digital Writing Environments”. College composition and Communication 54.4 ( June 2013): 629-56. web. 5 March 2016.

Summary 4: Space and Consequences: The Impact of Different Formal Learning Spaces on Instructor and Student Behavior

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Enhanced Active Learning Classroom

Enhanced Active Learning Classroom

Traditional Classroom

Traditional Classroom

This article presents the results of a quasi experimental research projects investigating the impact of two different formal learning spaces. A traditional classroom and a technological enhanced learning classroom. Which will demonstrate clear differences in events taking place in each space. That the different classroom types on the instructor and students. EDUCAUSE the leading organization responsible for promoting the application of new technologies in educational settings, has cause technological enhanced learning spaces to grow.

Though very few empirical studies have shown their impact on educational outcome. Even thought the data gathered is sparse it has begun to gather the attention of respected researchers globally. Using the information gathered from previous quasi experimental research conducted at the University of Minnesota. That found flexible, technologically enhanced classroom spaces improved student learning (which is measured by course grades) more than taking the same course in a traditional classroom setting. The research goes beyond the established evidence that learning spaces matter and instead explains how learning spaces matter.

The experiment used observational data collected for two sections of a single course taught by the same instructor. One section meet in a traditional classroom and the other meeting in a enhanced classroom. Data collected demonstrated that the student and instructor enrolled in the course behaved differently depending on the type of classroom. The temporal nature of the data was used to create a model that showed the casual impact of formal space on level of on task student behavior as a function of the instructor behavior and classroom activities.

The article then begins to describe what has caused institutions of higher education to changes how they approached classroom space. The cause is a host of articles promoting the potential transformative power of formal learning spaces, that teach practices and learning outcomes. Which is affected by the perspective of the interested party. Designers and technologists tend to focus on the architectural characteristics of different spaces. Focusing on the technological innovations that may enhance the teaching and learning experiences that occur.

Those more engaged in the scholarship of teaching and learning highlight the importance pedagogical ( the function or work of a teacher) approaches and issues related to teaching in new learning environment. That highlights lessons learned, best practices, and other practical considerations. Theoreticians offer normative and philosophical treatments of the significance of learning spaces to the process of teaching and learning.  Also what these new spaces portend for the future.

The schematic design for a traditional classroom and a active learning classroom. In a traditional classroom the seats are all position in way that their all facing forward and the teacher is in the front. In the Active Learning classroom all the seating are positioned to face each other, and the teacher is seated in the middle. One of the theoretical assumption is that “space exerts situational-related influences on human activities and experience as they are enacted and felt in environmental settings.

 

D., Christopher.”Space and consequences: The impact of different formal learning spaces on instructor and student behavior”. Journal of Learning Spaces 1:2 June 2012. web. February 16 2016.

 

Reading Summary 3: Recognizing campus Landscapes as Learning Space

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The article starts of describing how American higher education are facing changes and challenges in providing good learning spaces for diverse and evolving needs of college children. Like continued enrollment growth, technological challenges, and financial challenges. In 2009, 20.4 million children were enrolled in 2 or 4 year colleges/universities. Enrollments are also expected to rise 2019, 9% for students under 25 and 23% for students over 25.  The article talks about confronting the traditional notions of how university spaces are designed and used for effectiveness.

How Americans expect their universities to look different then other places because it expresses the academic life. Todays universities most encompass more than technological, classroom additions, and its academic buildings. The entire campus including the open spaces most be perceived as a holistic learning space that provides a holistic learning experience. Learning takes place throughout campus not just indoors in designated instructional spaces. Only one-fifth of the students time is spent in the classroom, contributing to one quarter of the learning variance. Open spaces on campus can play an important part in students learning and a strong influence on students initial and long standing experiences. Which promotes a sense of belong to the learning community. However the influences of open spaces are usually overlooked.

The college experience is a stimulating and demanding time in a students life which requires frequent and heavy use of direct focused attention and concentration. Which puts university students at a higher risk of attentional fatigue. Increase in technological use also increase the odds of students attentional fatigue. Campus natural open spaces have sadly not been systematically examined for replenishing cognitive functioning for attentional fatigued students. One way to  examine this is to consider the entire campus with its building and natural open spaces as a well-networked landscape system that supports students learning experiences. Highlighting the two concepts: 1. direct and indirect attention and restoration, 2. a holistic landscape.

American colleges and universities were self-sufficient and usually in rural areas with dormitories, dinning halls and recreational areas. Many university founders desired to create a ideal community that was a place apart, secluded from city desecrations but still open to the larger community. The advent of land-grant intuitions through the Morrill Act of 1862 required new buildings to be built with laboratories and observatory space in agriculture. Unlike the classical designs of America’s first institutions, the physical campus of the land- grant was designed to significant contribute to student learning. Fredrik Law Olmstead worked with the philosophy that physical landscape features had a direct impact on shaping human behavior, and offers students experimental education passive or theoretical learning.

 

Scholl, Kathleen & Gowri Betrabet Gulwadi. “Recognizing Campus Landscapes as learning Spaces”. Journal of Learning Spaces [online] 4.1(2015): n pag. web. 16 Feb. 2016

Achohen.”A Beautiful Space, a Usable Space: The Balance of Library Design “. The Library Incubator. Web. 13 April 2015. 16 February 2016.

 

 

 

Summary 2: Tapestry Of Space: Domestic Architecture And Underground Communities In Margaret Morton’s Photography Of A Forgotten New York

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       Margaret Morton’s photographs  of New York’s homeless demonstrate how urban space effects the mind and influence behavior. First  homelessness is not truly the condition of not having a a home it’s about not having a stable home. Identity and home is closely tied together. Yet a home is not a permante  thing for anyone. So this aspect of identity is fragile.

          Yet homeless people do have a home in tunnels or streets and they identify that space as their own by marking it or organizing it a way they prefer. Sure the space they might be able to call their own is 5 feet or less but its’s their’s. For homeless people having a unstable home situation is more apparent. Representing the  universal relationship between space and the splintered indentity.

      Morton employs the situationist method of exploring the city.  The Situationist Internationlist focus more on everyday life. Discussing how society focus consumption through image promotion. Morton’s New York focused photography is an example of how the Situationist Internationlist is focused on the conflict between society and the reality of homelessness within it. The Situationist’s goals were to examine everday life in it’s entirety. Using a technique for exploring spaces to understand the environments psychological impact.

       Gradually Morton breaks down people concept of underground life by satisfying people’s curiosity, and telling the story of a group of people trying to find a new home. Morton tells the story of a man named Bernard who describes life above ground as “distracting from the individual self”. Which is consistent with SI analysis. After underground life is not dedicated to accoumanating commodities. There was also, a guy called Bob who’s describes the tunnel as a place that makes you feel secure.

      However if you stay down their long enough the tunnel can consume. Yet he also calls it a good place to find out who you are, “but when you find out who you are, you have to move out or the tunnel will eat you up. Morton introduce life in the tunnel as a psychological space for it’s inhabitant. In terms of a psychological aspects rather then strictly an economic issue. Usually people believe it is some type of economic issue that has gotten a homeless person in their situation, ignoring the mental state of the residents. Morton does not try to romanticize the life underground.

       The tunnels are a neglected and undesirable location providing a home for the residents. One of the residents recalls being attacked once and how running into the tunnels gave a feeling of security, because the fear of the tunnel stopped those who were chasing him. Yet it did not stop him from because just like all the resident he’s familiar with the tunnel and above ground.

        People underground reach out for psychological peace and exspressing of oneself.  Using art the graffiti lining the walls makes one fells like their in a art museam. Art is a display of talent manifested in hidden places. Yet many tunnels have been closed off adding fuel to the ongoing war between the city and the homeless.

NERSESSOVA, IRINA. “Tapestry Of Space: Domestic Architecture And Underground Communities In Margaret Morton’s Photography Of A Forgotten New York.” Disclosure 23 (2014): 26. Advanced Placement Source. Web. 25 Jan. 2016.

Summary 1: Architectural Exclusion: Discrimination And Segregation Through Physical Design Of The Built Environment

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The Archetecturial Exclusion article basically centers around the concept that distrimination inadvently has lead to our environmental structures. That made man made (physical) features have made it hard for individuals to get to certain places , usually the poor people and people of color. For example, bridges were design to prevent buses from passing through. Denying access to people of color. The law addresses the exclusionary impacts, while most courts and legislatures have given very little attention to exclusionary design tactics.

Like a street Grid layout can shape the demographics for a city and isolate a neighborhood from those surrounding it. The exclusionary environment restricts the behavior of those who interact with it, often without their knowledge. The introduction of the Achetecturial Exclusion story talks about Roberts Moses , also known as the master builder of New York. Has shaped most of New York infrastructure including a number of low hanging overpasses. Intentionally so buses could not pass under them, preventing acces to poor people and people of color since they usually relied on public transportation.

Atlanta, Georgia has a public transportation subway known as the metropolitan Atlanta Regional Transit Authority (Marta). Wealthy residents have been very vocal against the expansion of Marta. Simply because it would give poor people and people of color easy access to suburban communities. Poor people and people of color  rely on the transit though for the job opportunities offered in the suburb. Another exclusionary act is the closing of a street in Mephos in 1974.

A group of white residents requested that a sreet that connected to a primary black one be closed off. Supporters argued that it would reduce traffic and noise.  The U.S Supreme court dismissed this action stating that the road closer was just a routine burden of citizenship and slight inconvenience. Those who are responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination law found it hard to find fault with acts like this because it was hard to show the intent to destriminate. Theses in fractures also influence the way resident and visitors view the city.

This article builds on Lawrence Lessig’s regulatory theory which asserts that behavior may be regulated or constrained in part by Architecture.  “The term architecture is used broadly to encompass civil engineering ,urban design, transit routing, and city planning.  The decision of those who work in these various fields results in a infracture” (Sarah, The infraction is also included in the  in the broad definition of archeticture and function as a form of regulation.

Part one provides a theoretical framework analysis by focusing on the way that the built environment  controls or regulates our behavior. Examines the literature discuss infracture placement and design as physical and symbolic contributors to economic and social inequality, exclusion, and isolation.  These concepts are foundamental to planners and architics only a small number of legal scholars begun to question a built environmental regulatory role.  Regulation through archeticture is just as powerful as  laws but it is less explicit.

Part two considers the practice of architectural exclusion. Detailing the number of ways that through action by  their residents or police have created I fractures.

Sarah Schindler. “ Arechetictural Exclusion: Descrimination and Segregation Throught physical design of the built environment. 124:6. Web. 1/17/2016