Facebook, Autism, and Media Fearmongering

I came across an article called “Social websites harm children’s brains” awhile back and never got around to reading it till tonight. You can find the article here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1153583/Social-websites-harm-childrens-brains-Chilling-warning-parents-neuroscientist.html

The rhetoric of this article, of media fearmongers in general, is boggling. I see it with 'text-messaging ruins grammar' news pieces frequently. It almost seem as if there is a template, or formula even, to churn out articles about web 2.0 technologies: take one curmudgeonly authority, one “new” technology, add a lot of qualifiers, and voila—a new cautionary tale of woe, a lot of hot air scented with plausibility and devoid of empirical evidence.

Notice the way Greensfield’s quotes are handled. “Baroness Greenfield, an Oxford University neuroscientist and director of the Royal Institution, believes repeated exposure could effectively ‘rewrite’ the brain.” My emphasis. The next line, however, supplies a semblance of certainty: “Computer games and fast-paced TV shows were also a factor, she said.” A factor in what? The plausibility of her notion? The article references no study, no data, no evidence—only speculation.

Another quote, beginning with “My fear is that…,” confirms the Baroness’ ideas are purely speculative. “Then she argued that exposure to… could leave a generation with poor attention spans.” Again, my emphasis. If this article is the judge, Greenfield has not done any actual research on the topic. She has merely wondered about it. “I often wonder whether real conversation will give way to these sanitized and easier screen dialogues…”

Her picture’s caption is almost comical. “Professor Susan Greenfield: Concerned.” But the real treat is the bit on autism. Correlation does not equal causation. At least the ‘connection’ between autism and computers is tempered by her admission of ignorance.

Fearmongering aside, her credentials are nothing to laugh at (except maybe the royal title, tee-hee). She may very well be right. But who is to say that the changes aren’t for the better? Aren’t necessary given the acceleration of technology? If youths’ brains are being reprogrammed because of the changing environment, perhaps the old stubborn brained folks will be the ones in danger of not being able to communicate. L2Txt, Gramps.

Piracy, Ahoy

Pirates: 3,500,000 (Pirate Bay’s registered users) Courts: 4 (Pirate Bay’s hosts)

The Pirate Bay trial verdict is in, and it doesn’t look good for the pirates. If you haven't been following the Pirate Bay trial, allow me to provide you with some background via links:

http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-trial-the-verdict-090417/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirate_Bay

For those “tl;dr” (too long; didn’t read) followers of this blog, here's a brief summary: Filesharing megasite hosts are tried, found guilty.

What surprises me with the Pirate Bay case is that only the site’s hosts were tried. I’m no tech-xpert, but I imagine there is a way to pursue and prosecute the users of Pirate Bay through the site’s logs or IP history. Now, the penalty the founders face (years in jail, millions of dollars in restitution, etc.) may be enough to discourage other would-be captains of pirate hosting sites; or, bilge rats may see the lack of prosecution of the users as clear waters for further piracy.

My interest is in the particulars. The founders were charged with, according to the first link, “assisting in making copyright content available” by archiving and storing BitTorrent files. It seems to me the real scallywags here are the unprosecuted users: they are the ones consuming and using the files; the founders were just the pirates who sorted the cove’s treasure, not the ones who thieved it. A mobster’s crooked accountant is as guilty as the mobster, I guess.

I’ve always imagined the underground piracy movement was too ethereal, too ubiquitous for any legal action to catch up with the chum buckets involved. Apparently not. While prosecuting four people may seem like a small victory, if doing so sinks the world’s largest BitTorrent tracker, perhaps it is the same as bringing down the flagship of a giant armada. Maybe we ought to do the same with one of the renowned Somali pirate ports: take it down.

Composition's Reach: The Legitimization of a Discipline?

Some questions have been lurking in my brain for awhile now, ethereal and recurring; but before I raise them in this blog I want to issue a disclaimer. What follows is by no means an attempt to undermine, incite, or attack. What follows is an attempt to negotiate what, for me, and I think some of my fellow classmates, have been some difficult issues we’ve struggled with throughout the semester as we discussed the topics of technology and English pedagogy. In reading Wysocki’s Writing New Media, I cannot help but think about the distinction between disciplines.

At which point does English overstep its bounds in teaching technological composition? If a graphics design syllabus was submitted as an English syllabus, bound by ties to composition practices, wouldn’t somebody over in the comp-sci or art building (and I’m not sure which: this uncertainty may be an indication of a greater, underlying issue of obscurity in course/discipline relationships) get upset? I mean, some film studies courses are taught by English instructors: what’s the difference here? Is there one?

Dr. Dorn’s “Bibliographic Strategies” class last spring got me thinking about how others view the English field (how are the humanities valued? Why does our field matter?). Dr. Barton’s “Teaching College English” this past fall got me thinking about how English has tried to legitimize itself (cognitive theory, empirical research, scientific language, etc.). I see the connections between technology and composition; I see the value of teaching certain principles regarding technology; I understand the desire of some English instructors to defy tradition, upset hierarchies, and teach outside the norm; I understand all this, but still wonder.

How far can our discipline extend itself in the quest to teach composition? Does any creative act, when defined as composition, license us to seize the reins? Are there even such boundaries, borders, or bifurcation between fields? Does the academe have those types of politics? I cannot imagine it doesn’t. At what point does a friendly, scholarly interest in a field marginally (and this is a loaded adjective, I realize) related to English overreach? I’m interested to get some comments/replies/feedback/input from my readers. What do you think?

IP Freely

Modern day pirates aren’t solely from Somalia; they can be found anywhere there is Internet access. Intellectual Property, copyright concerns, and P2P piracy are growing problems. Years ago, Lester Faigley made the analogy that finding information online is like drinking from a fire hose; when information is so bountiful, comes from so many different streams, washes over us in waves, we take it for granted. The drink has numbed our senses to IP issues. Walter Benjamin’s influential “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” is an important article to read when pondering ownership; I wonder if the text would be too difficult for my freshmen to read to get them thinking about IP: it would be a great discussion piece.

Most of my students know Napster only from its infamy, not from having actually used it; but that is not to say they don’t use other P2P file sharing software. When it comes to the argument essay assignment, I always have at least one student who wants to write about P2P downloads and the RIAA. They are familiar with the issue, but not knowledgeable about it. The segue would be great: we would talk about the popular “pirates versus ninja” debates which would transition neatly into the movie anti-piracy ads and on to a site like http://www.ninjavideo.net/ where the class could see thievery in action. (I wonder, would showing such a site—not necessarily any of its content, just the site itself—cause legal problems?)

Youku.com, the Japanese YouTube, has far fewer restrictions as to its content: viewers can find shows that have been removed from YouTube for copyright. I don’t know much about international copyright law, but it would be an interesting case study for students to look at. How do different cultures view IP matters? How can IP laws in the states be enforced across the globe? Can they be? What are the ramifications of that enforcement? Intellectual property provides delicious food for thought.

MnCUEW Redux

As stated in a previous blog, this past Friday I and several of my colleagues presented on a panel at the Minnesota Colleges Universities English and Writing conference on “The Multimodal Classroom: Old Lesson Plans in New Ways.” This was my first conference. I don’t mean to build any anticipation or suspense, so I will just say right now: I didn’t vomit. The entire experience was actually quite enjoyable. I was a bit nervous, slightly tense—but everything was peachy.

The panel consisted of five SCSU TA’s (including me); we presented on our experiences renovating classroom lesson plans through the use of various modes (technology, literature, etc.). We had one hour to present, which gave us each about ten minutes. Unfortunately, we all went over by a minute or two and resulted in having very little time for questions.

I was surprised by how many people attended our panel; from what I’ve heard from other conferences, some presenters speak to only five or so guests. We had eighteen. I didn’t have enough handouts: what a great problem. It was alright though; some of the folks in the crowd were from SCSU, so we cheated them out of theirs and told them if they wanted a handout to e-mail us after the conference.

The food was average. As we approached the doors, I swore I smelled fish. Then the realization hit me. Lent. Friday. I hate fish. Oh no. But much to my stomach’s delight, there was no fish dish. An oriental entrée, salad bar, and deli bar fortified by desserts-a-plenty made the lunch rather enjoyable (even though it was catered, I believe, by the food service from the U of MN). And to complement the culinary reception, there were soda fountains around every corner and an ice cream bar freezer (all free) that we found after our panel was over. Jackpot!

Overall, I’d have to say that the experience was great. Aside from the short notice on our acceptance, the conference was a success (for me, anyways; and probably my colleagues): ten minute presentations were quite relaxed to prepare for—especially since mine was based off my blogs here—and the drive was just down to the cities. It’s difficult to ask for more when trying to build a CV.

On a side note: while at the gym Saturday, watching the History Channel, I saw a preview for a new show "Deadly Weapons" that quoted World of Warcraft! I have to believe the quote was intentional, it would be far too coincidental otherwise. I'm not sure I'd call the History Channel mainstream, but there definitely seems to be a lot more popular exposure to niche culture gaming recently.

Web Design Musings

Short blog today. I am working on getting everything together for the MnCUEW conference tomorrow, so I am going to just write through some of my ideas and quandaries relating to the website design project. Feel free to comment with ideas or suggestions.

As I compiled a list of possible links, documents, pictures, etc. for my website, I began to think about how I wanted to organize the information. I wanted something that represented my persona, but also something navigable and user-friendly. The website’s audience will cater to both students and potential employers, so the layout decision has been difficult. That being said, I considered using a WoW game interface as the main page. If you’re unfamiliar with how the game’s classic interface looks, here is a link (note that I did try to find a pic with arrows and labels for what the items are--for those non-gamers out there--but was unable to find any):

http://images.tentonhammer.com/aoc/images/wowui.jpg

The image is overly busy. Mine would be vastly reduced. The icons present would be links. But with more consideration, I’m not sure the idea is feasible, for a number of reasons. One, I don’t know that any non-WoW players would “get it;” two, I think it may be a bit too unprofessional for hiring committees (even though it would speak volumes about my style/personality); three, I’m not sure the action bar icons are emphasized enough to act as links (which is my entire premise with this idea, but unfortunately the action bar icons are de-emphasized for game play); and four, I’m not even sure my vision could be achieved through the software we’ll be using.

So I am still hunting. While I’d love to have a practical project result at the end of the class to use for both my possible audiences, I’m not sure how I can fit everything together to reach them without a disjointed feeling. Ideally, potential employers would visit the site and get a sense of how I manage my classroom through technology; the trick, though, will be doing so without alienating my students: I want them to feel like the website is their resource and not just a self-promotional tool of mine.