Category Archives: New Media

The Same Old Circle

Here’s the same old circle

Some Web evangelists say children should be evaluated for their proficiency on the Internet just as they are tested on their print reading comprehension. Starting next year, some countries will participate in new international assessments of digital literacy, but the United States, for now, will not.

Clearly, reading in print and on the Internet are different. On paper, text has a predetermined beginning, middle and end, where readers focus for a sustained period on one author’s vision. On the Internet, readers skate through cyberspace at will and, in effect, compose their own beginnings, middles and ends.

Young people “aren’t as troubled as some of us older folks are by reading that doesn’t go in a line,” said Rand J. Spiro, a professor of educational psychology at Michigan State University who is studying reading practices on the Internet. “That’s a good thing because the world doesn’t go in a line, and the world isn’t organized into separate compartments or chapters.”

Some traditionalists warn that digital reading is the intellectual equivalent of empty calories. Often, they argue, writers on the Internet employ a cryptic argot that vexes teachers and parents. Zigzagging through a cornucopia of words, pictures, video and sounds, they say, distracts more than strengthens readers. And many youths spend most of their time on the Internet playing games or sending instant messages, activities that involve minimal reading at best.

Much of this is the equivalent of a ripped, jumbled map, where “you are here” is positioned at random.

So much has been written on hypertext. But are the “experts” reading?

Another New Deal

As I write this big budget cuts are coming and will hit Connecticut Higher Ed pretty hard and, of course, everyone else. Indeed, slender funds will hurt much of my plans for the coming years on the subject of hyperdrama and hypertext literature.

It’s been bugging me that nationally the country has yet to be thinking deeply about infrastructures that will take us deep into the century. The current campaign business is pure typicality. I read things here and there about electric cars, about mass transit. I’d love to take a train or a bus to work. What about national commitment? Real knuckles to the wrench sort of thinking.

I’m reminded that Tinderbox is infrastructure.

On another note, John has set up a You Tube area for the mashup students and the student videos will be going up very soon.

Also, a link to the Watchmen trailer.

Communication Models

The relationship between today’s paper Courant and the digital version is interesting. The digital version pretends that the paper doesn’t exist and the paper is full of stories about Tribune Co cuts that will see 25% cuts in staff and a trimming of an already spare version.

The corporate news model never worked. It’s too loaded with items that have nothing directly to do with content. It would seem that value added is not a good idea for an institution that should have intrinsic value, kind of like charging the government for congressional participation in the culture.

But the new media model is more significant and interesting. TPM is a current workable model. It may be the only viable future, in fact, for large distribution news, unless the corporation gives away its profits to the news engine, which is unlikely.

Alas, we will be canceling our subscription to the Courant as we have no need for a trimmed down version given that the current paper is just barely readable, despite what Barbara Roessner writes regarding the “new” paper.

Narrative Distance

We’ve talking a lot about narrative distance this week (and last week). August Wilson has a neat example of this in his play, Fences. Here’s a chain:

1. Troy and Cory clash at the end of the play after building tension between them.
2. While not immediately linked to the above, but critical to it, Troy makes a contract with Cory. Cory “sort of” agrees to work at the A&P to earn his football play.
3. Troy learns that Cory has broken this contract.
4. Troy convinces the coach not to let Cory play at the recruiter’s game at the end of Act I. 1 is at quite a distance from 2, 3, and 4 but is a consequence of the plotted chain of events. This is narrative distance as an event model not as a path model.

A story can indeed be conceived as a set of points or several related points organized and determined by user choice in the context of story. The hypertext can also be drawn as a confluence model, a single events or set of them studied from multiple angles.

It’s time for me to get back to writing about hypertext, too.

Ah, Sandoval, you are Southwestern and its confluence, Mexican American, Science, and love.

Tunxis Summer Mash-up

The Tunxis Summer Mash-Up is a two-week intensive program designed for high school students interested in combining their creative talents with contemporary technology to explore the world of digital storytelling.

Students will produce three short films: a self-portrait, a documentary, and a work of fiction. Each of these projects will be mentored by faculty members who have real-world experiences in the various genres.

Students will have access to cameras, scanners, computers, video-editing software, and script-writing software to produce their short films.

Tuition also includes lunch each day and a 2Gb flash drive for everyone.

For more information, contact John Timmons at this email address or visit our web site at http://www.tunxis.commnet.edu/mashup

Games and Literature

Roger Travis has an interesting set of activities up. I wonder if he wouldn’t me borrowing some of it.

Unit 1. The bardic occasion, then and now (A, B) (3 weeks)

* Activities: (reading) Iliad 2, Odyssey 8-9, Lord, Singer of Tales; (gaming) Play a level or quest three times, preferably in co-op; (discussion) in-game discussion; develop interview questions for developers.
* Sub-objectives: 1) describe the bardic occasion; 2) summarize oral formulaic theory; 3) produce a report of a gaming session as a bardic occasion.

Hamlet and Games

John Timmons sends a link to Gamasutra’s Hamlet game challenge.

This week’s challenge is: Design a game that teaches Shakespeare’s Hamlet using only original text as dialogue.

Anyone is welcome to participate, and professional developers are encouraged to provide feedback and guidance to the GameCareerGuide.com community via its forum.

To suggest your own solutions, read the complete assignment on GameCareerGuide.com. Then send your answers to gamecareerguide@gmail.com with the subject line “Design Challenge: Hamlet.” Entries must be submitted by Wednesday, June 4, 2008. Be sure to include your full name and school affiliation or job title. Please try to keep your answers to 500 words or fewer — unless they’re really good!