More on Blogs ‘R’ Us…

There are a couple more blogs that i have to talk about, ones that i enjoy to read, not only because we have to but also because they bring up some really good points.

Kiralee found herself surfing through her favourite Youtube channels to find their collection of Interactive adventures, emphasis being on the Interactive adventures!

Kenton’s blog is an enjoyable read, getting a laugh whilst looking through the photo montage! On a more serious note, he writes about getting his head around the symposium and says that Ted Nelson is a smarter version of himself. He also goes into detail about hypertext and its full potential which was not only beneficial, but also a really good read.

Lastly Stephan brings up the never-ending debate resting back to my symposium post, that technology depends on us, however we rely on it!

I find this exercise to be beneficial, as it allows interaction through hypertext, it is a way to communicate, and it is also a way to learn. Sometimes peers can be the best people to explain something that you don’t fully understand.

Blogs ‘R’ us

The new thing to do now is to not only read everyone else’s blogs but write about them also. Its hard to write short pieces on fellow colleagues when they all come up with strong and valid points that help me understand aspects of Networked Media.

First up is Carli. For this weeks reading she talks about hypertext as experiential, then goes on to discuss experiential learning as the process of making meaning from direct experience.

Ellen uses examples of the Sims and Neopets to show her understanding of Hypertext.

And, lastly Maddison discusses how the blogs that we are using are hypertext, and explains all about the interactive screen.

 

Symposium WK 6 – The web is huge, the web is everything!

This weeks symposium focused on questions about the relationship between technology, art and culture, and the potential of hypertext, and whether we will ever be satisfied with it.

1. Can technology progress independently of art and culture?
-There was a debate over this question as the tutor’s shared their different views and opinions. Some said that technology is not separated from culture. That technology comes from artistic and cultural desires. As a species we have always used technology. Everything is technology, culture and art. Art is a technology practice. Art is a technology oasis. There is no art and culture without technology. There is NO separation. However on the other hand, technology has a logic of its own. It can progress independently from art and culture. Like everything there is always two sides to the story.

2.What is the untapped potential of hypertext? Will we ever be satisfied with it?
-Most of this question was targeted at Ted Nelson and his views on Hypertext. To answer this question the tutor’s suggested that the web is huge and the web is everything. Everything is as close as everything else. Media online does not have edges, and if it does not have edges how does it have an ending. This leads onto the notion of hypertext and how it works not only in the past and present, but also the future. From the term technological determinism, does technology shape us or do we shape technology, it shows both sides of the argument to whether or not we will ever be satisfied with hypertext. Will society continue to change because technology does, or is it trying to keep up with the ever-changing dependencies from society?

Week 6 Reading

“What if you had a book that changed every time you read it?”

In today’s society, interaction is how we live, we depend on this activity to socialise, learn, and communicate with people globally. This reading talks about how hypertext and the book are different and how the world is leaning towards the web for everything. This is where Adrian leads to with his book examples every symposium, explaining that the web does not have edges, therefore does not have a set ending. What if you had a book that changed every time you read it depending on your mood, whims and latest fetish?

Hypertext is a highly refined technology  that allows for an interactive narrative where future readers will interpret it differently from the way we do now. A quote about hypertext: “Describes a tool that lets us use the printed word as the basis for a technology that considerably extends writing’s reach and repertoire“. Hypertext is a tangled network of texts and links, that is the form of technology where the future is leading, and where the present is at. It feels that now, we are transitioning between networked literacy and print literacy, and from the past few readings it all seems to represent the same notion, that hypertext is the way of the future, the way to communicate and the way to interact. Hypertext is the new and improved book that allows the viewer to decide on the ending that they want.

You won’t know your full potential unless you push yourself!

You are stronger than you think, you can take on more than you ever could, and you have the ability to reach past your full potential. I found this article on The New York Times that demonstrates how your body can handle more than you think. As the saying goes ‘No pain, No gain’. How will we know what our limits are if we do not set out to find them?

Full Potential

 

I suggest you take a look at GRETCHEN REYNOLD’S article about physical limits and be open to the idea of pushing yourself to reach your goals.

Out-smarted by Technology?

New York Times wrote an article about the future improvements of a smartphone and how it is smarter than its owner by the way it uses data programming. This links to Network Literacy and also Technological determinism, showing just how dependent we are on these items, and how they organise parts in the users life to potentially benefit them. Are we becoming that inept in our own lives that technology is creating new ways to out smart the human race?

The article states: “As our phones merge with our cars, houses and other connected devices, we could well drown in data. There will be more apps, contacts, messages and other digital bits than any sane human has the time or cognitive capacity to make sense of.

As that occurs, the phone will have to morph into an intelligent filter; it will need to be able to figure out who needs you, and why, and decide when to demand your attention. In other words, the smartphone will have to finally start living up to its name?”

To read the full article, which I encourage you to do so, click here!

‘Reconfiguring the Text’

METATEXT, HYPERTEXTUALITY, HYPERTEXT SYSTEM….

“We must write with an awareness that we are writing in the presence of other texts”

Online, where is the line drawn when it comes to virtual reality, real-life and private. Is there a clear cut between these areas, or have people accepted that nothing is private anymore? That we need to share professional and personal items online. Due to the online world being so interactive and consuming, participants (as I would call them) in this network community are able to do this through HTML.

To focus on one point from the reading, is Blogging (ironically). This medium demonstrates hypertext as it is the first available means of the web to allow an active reader or author. Things such as an RSS feeds sends the subscriber only the headline of a new blog, whereas Atom feeds add a summary and includes its links as well.

Hypertext changes the experiences we have on reading, writing, and text, influencing the way we communicate and think of print literacy. HTML is an effective way share text through navigational links, tags, search tools, and the ability to provide access to materials that may be classified.

Hypertext redefines not only beginnings and endings go the text, but also its borders’.

If you don’t know how to ask good questions, you won’t know how to get good answers!

For this weeks symposium my Tutorial class came up with the questions.

1. How is hypertext relevant to us as network practitioners?
It is how we connect. It is how we live, it is all around us, we are bathing in it.

2. What current predictions about Network Literacy should we be aware of?
I found this questions did not get answered to understand the views of the tutor’s perspective, and see what they thought about where this industry will be in the future. We have been reading these articles that were predicting 30 years into the future, but why now is it that we can’t answer this? Everything changes, people change, society will change, and so will technology and the way it works and how we communicate. Having this as our future field of expertise we need to know the changing society and the demands that arise, we need to know where the future is heading, and we have to stay on top of the latest trends for what is yet to come. I believe that Network Literacy will change, because everything does, however I don’t know in what way. This is why this question was brought forward to see expert opinions on the matter.

3. What are the consequences of being network illiterate?
Network literacy is the world today, it is how we communicate, interact and stay updated globally. In this day and age you need to have a thorough understanding of how network literacy works, and why it is used. I feel that everyone using these blogs now are network literate as we understand what to do, how is works and why it is used. Sure, some might not know how to make a blog from scratch, however we are using it. We are using technology everyday and teaching ourselves the new improvements in this area, just by being on it. It is the future and if we don’t keep up to date, you will be left behind.

I quite enjoyed reading Carli’s blog and her opinion of this weeks symposium, so go check it out!

The use of HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

HTML has been a heavily discussed topic for the past two weeks now, and every time new points arise. Week 4 tutorial was dedicated to HTML.

< > ..

</> ..

<html> </html> ..

<h1> </h1> ..

<body> </body> ..

These codes were presented to the class along with ones to insert media, writing and hyperlinks to other websites.

A main point that was introduced to us was .. <   > This is a tag. What we fill this tag with is what we want to do. So an instruction. This is the beginning of our journey through the ways in which network literacy works.

I look at HTML as a series of instructions we are telling to the computer to perform. I find myself asking questions about the nitty gritty details such as ‘Why is a tag those specific symbols?’. It is something you have to wrap your head around, and it is apart of the ever so changing world we live in. It is the backbone of network literacy, the reasoning behind why you can click on a link and it will take you to another place. You look at a website and see the header in the middle of the page, the photograph linking out to various sites, the font and font size, the background, the content, the header styles.. all of this is stemming from HTML.

</html>

Skip to toolbar