Clubs? Communities? Where Do People Discuss E-Books?

Wattpad- an e-book community with the tagline, "Read what you like.  Share what you write."  With this site you can read books, vote for your favorites, start a library, chat with other readers and writers, post comments, and share your writing.  Users can access Wattpad through the internet or through a mobile phone application.  Their application has been downloaded over five million times.  Here is a link telling more about their website and the results of their latest metrics report.
Goodreads- You can do many of the same things on Goodreads that you can on Wattpad.  Both Wattpad and Goodreads allow you to download and upload e-books.
LibraryThing- another community site that has been compared to "Facebook for books."

MobileRead- forums for discussion more about e-book formats and e-book news, but still useful.  MobileRead also has a Wiki, which includes a spot for book reviews.  I found some useful information on their Wiki, including leading me to places to find e-books online and in my community.  The book review part of the Wiki has not had a lot of work done, but it could be useful if more people would contribute.

Local e-book clubs- some people are gathering together to discuss e-books in their communities.  One of these groups is the Kindle E-Book Reading Club at the Louisville Free Public Library.  They meet once each month to discuss tips and shortcuts for the Kindle, while reading a free download together each month.
Specific focus e-book clubs- people are forming e-book clubs that focus on a certain area of interest, such as a Punk Rock Permaculture e-book club.

Uploading An E-Book On Goodreads- Definitely Possible

image from www.bligbook.com- from an article, by Robin-Shah, with links to 5 websites about sites with free e-books

Our Engl 295 class is considering writing an e-book for our final project.  One detail that we have been trying to figure out is how we can distribute to the online audience and who our subject audience was going to be.  Our class has really enjoyed the Goodreads site, so we wondered if there might be a way to post our book on their website.  I had remembered opening an e-book of Jane Eyre on their website so I started researching.  I thought that I had figured out how it would work to upload an e-book, but I wanted to make sure, so I wrote Goodreads Support.  Below is the letter that I wrote to them:

Patrick from Goodreads Support responded the very next day with this message:

Now our class has an outlet to post our e-Book.  I am really excited to see the response to our book on the website once it has been posted....but first, to write the book.

Charlotte's Web for Carlie and Feminism (or Friendship)

 I am going to use EBSCOhost, a database resource, in order to find a connection between Charlotte's Web and feminism.

EBSCO Databases.  Provides full-text for over 1,250 academic journals, and full-text articles can be found back to January 1990.  Over half the journals are peer-reviewed.

First, I have to tell you that the first hit, when I searched '"Charlotte's Web" and femin*,' was "'Charlotte's web': reading Jane Eyre over time."  I thought that was pretty ironic.
Then, I searched for '"Charlotte's Web" and wom*.'  I found an article about how a woman used the internet to form positive relationships.  This article was called, ""Charlotte’s Web:" How One Woman Weaves Positive Relationships on the Net."

Here is the citation for the source:
Biggs, S. "Charlotte's Web: How One Woman Weaves Positive Relationships 
     on the Net." CyberPsychology & Behavior 3.4 (2000)Print.

 The article describes a woman's journey making friends while on the internet, discussing how it changed her relationship with herself and others.

I know Carlie is focusing on the aspect of friendship for Charlotte's Web.  I thought this was a good connection between her book and friendship in the digital age.

Charlotte Brontë: Pedagogy In The Classroom and In Jane Eyre

My purpose is to explore Project MUSE, a literary database, to learn more about the connection between Charlotte Brontë and education

Project MUSE. A database containing over 200 journals involving humanities, social sciences, and mathematics.

I searched Project MUSE for '"Jane Eyre" and pedago*.'  The article, "The Education of Charlotte Bronte: A Pedagogical Case Study," was the top result.

Here is the citation for the article:

Lonoff, Sue. "The Education of Charlotte Brontë: A Pedagogical Case 
     Study." Pedagogy 1.3 (2001): 457. Print. 

I learned more about Charlotte Brontë's personal education, why she chose to learn the things that she did, how her novels included both self-teaching and classroom lessons, and the similarity between her and her siblings' individual learning styles.

For me, one of the main purposes for reading is to learn, whether that is something about the world or something about yourself.  This article shows that Charlotte shared those same feelings.  I am excited to apply this article to my interpretation of Jane Eyre.

Using JSTOR To Discover Excess and Restraint in Jane Eyre

My purpose is to use JSTOR (Journal Storage), a database resource, to further my connections between Jane Eyre and the author-reader, creater-viewer, etc.  response of literary and other artistic works.

JSTOR (Journal Storage).  This is a resource indexing journal articles available online involving the humanities, social science, and more recently, science.  Some articles go back to the 19th century.  JSTOR searches also search the database ARTstor.

I browsed the database JSTOR for '"Jane Eyre" AND restraint.'  I followed the 8th link provided which was "Jane and the Other Mrs. Rochester: Excess and Restraint in "Jane Eyre"."  This article was available in its full length online.


Here is the citation for this article:
Grudin, Peter. "Jane and the Other Mrs. Rochester: Excess and Restraint in 
     "Jane Eyre"." NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction 10.2, Tenth Anniversary Issue: 
     II (1977): pp. 145-157. Print.


I learned in this article more about the historical background of a character's illness, the battle between excess and restraint and sources describing where each character stands in this battle, and how by illustration, this didactic novel effectively utilizes its character's actions to teach and elicit a response from the reader.


In rereading Jane Eyre, while paying special attention to the reader response experienced by myself and other readers, I have found more lessons in this didactic novel than ever before.  By studying these lessons individually, I will be able to study the author-reader and creator-viewer response in a more informed matter.  

Same Team: Text and Media

 My friend Tom started a blog almost a month ago, but this blog is no ordinary blog.  Tom's blog is a blog comprised of annotated voice recordings, of his wife's sleep-induced anecdotes.  His wife apparently talks a lot in her sleep, so Tom uses a voice-activated recorder app for his iPod.  This is different from any other blog that I have seen before, and when Dr. Burton was speaking about how text is being teamed up more often than ever before with other media forms, I recalled Tom's blog and its entertaining format.  Blogs are usually text supported by other media forms, but Tom's blog is made up of recordings and photos supported by small amounts of text.  The text and other media work together to create a more engaging and informative experience for the reader.  Just like in football, you do not tackle your own teammate, which would hurt your end goal.  Instead of trying to separate text and media, having them work together will help you efficiently tackle the issue you are trying to address.

 

In my English class, we were discussing this idea when talking about the Digital Public Library of America.  The plan appears to focus on text alone.  To keep up with the changing world of information and technology, I feel they need to embrace the media to supplement the information found in text form.  The opportunity to combine these informative mediums is available to those creating the Digital Pubic Library of America.  It will require more time and effort, because there is more involved in the process of creating a digital book when you include other forms of information.  One example of combining these mediums is seen in Al Gore's book, Our Choice. 

"The Our Choice app is a digital reading experience that matches a book for ease and outdoes it in ways that Gutenberg surely never imagined. With just your fingers, and the screen, the 400-page book becomes a portal to video, photo, and infographic content that demonstrates just how powerful an aid technology can be to the cause of knowledge." -Amy Lee from The Huffington Post

The Digital Public Library of America is a great opportunity to start a new library form including a rather new, more informative, and engaging book format, allowing text and other media forms to play for the same team.

Learning Interactions in Online Discussion Forums

As constant learners, we need to remember that there is much to learn from those who have different experiences and personalities than ours.  A great place for this learning to take place is in online discussion forums or the comment section of a blog post.  Effective learning takes place when the learning environment is learner-centered, knowledge-centered, assessment-centered, and community-centered.  "Interactivity has been considered as central tenet to the concept of 'online learning theory' (Balaji 3)."  Online resources, such as online discussion forums and blogs, allow learners to reflect upon their thinking.  The learning experience becomes individualized by this deep level learning and "new knowledge structures."  These methods of learning communication allow students to learn at their own pace and according to their interests, previous knowledge, and style.  Feedback is important for the smooth-functioning of these online learning centers.

Also, the community or social component presented on these sites play a huge role in online learning.  Interaction on these online sites give learners a sense of community or social connectivity.  As learners explore and discuss a subject, relationships are formed between the participants.  "Previous research has shown that learning communities exhibit increased student learning, and course satisfaction (Balaji 3)."  Learning effectiveness, in using online discussion forums, is influenced by the interactions and communication that take place.  The level of interaction that takes place depends on the learning environment, learning process, and learner characteristics.  The lack of nonverbal cues in online discussion forums may lead to less intense interactions, but the lack of cues may unbind the social hierarchy in the online environment, enabling users a more equal footing.

This is one of my favorite excerpts from the article.  It speaks about how preparation and personality affect the learner's contribution to online discussion forums:

"Previous studies report adequate student preparation in using the online discussion forums and easy navigation function of the forum to increase contribution. For example, Tsai (2004) in his study on students’ information search strategies found that students with high internet efficacy learned better and performed their online learning tasks more efficiently.  Whereas, low internet efficacy users find it challenging in searching for the information to complete online tasks and thus may show lower motivation. Furthermore, the student’s personality characteristics can influence their online participation. Studies investigating individual personality and internet behavior have revealed that introverted students to be more able to communicate with others in online environment than face-to-face (Amichai-Hamburger, Wainapel and Fox, 2002). Chen and Caropreso (2004) in their study investigated the effect of three personality traits – extroversion, agreeableness and openness – on online discussion.  Contrary to the early findings, the results report that students classified as “low” on these personality dimensions posted messages that were one-way and unrelated or slightly related to the discussion topics. Extroverts, because of their strong need for gratification and higher success rate of interaction are more likely to participate in ODFs (Balaji 6)."

The poster of a topic also plays a role in the learning process.  The poster posts interesting and relevant topics to get fellow learners involved.  The poster has “the responsibility of keeping discussions on track, contributing special knowledge and insights, weaving together various discussion threads and course components, and maintaining group harmony (Balaji 6)”.  Constant interactions between poster and learner help raise the learner's comfort level with technology and encourages them to be more proactive.  Just like the learner-learner social element, the poster-learner relationship also needs to be maintained and strengthened to create a better learning environment.  The immediacy of feedback in the online environment gives a greater opportunity to communicate with other learners.  The sense of connectedness among the learners increases the interactions in the online environment.  Media richness theory argues that using appropriate media will improve task performance.  Online discussion forums are built as effective learning communities; which if we will utilize them, we can grow and learn from one another.

Information from "Student Interactions in Online Discussion Forum: Empirical Research from ‘Media Richness Theory’ Perspective"- M S Balaji, Diganta Chakrabarti, IBS Hyderabad, IFHE Universtiy, Hyderbad, India- Spring 2010

Goodreads Discussion

I have never started a discussion group before, and I was slightly hesitant to do so.  I tend to avoid conflict, which discussion groups often have a lot of.  This makes sense with so many people coming together with strong conviction about different issues and ideas, because we all come from different backgrounds and experiences.  My discussion group is just starting out, and I am hoping to gather some more opinions about the book Jane Eyre.  I am focusing the group on choice and independence, which are central themes in Jane Eyre.  So far, I have had people reply with different opinions than I have and some new insights have been brought into the discussion.  I am excited to see how the discussion continues to grow and develop.  Through my perspective of the book and the perspectives of the other members of the discussion group, we will be able to gain a better perspective of the work as a whole, each bringing our own piece of the Jane Eyre puzzle.  As I learn more about the book, I also hope to learn more about myself as a reader and scholar, especially on how to communicate my ideas more clearly in an online setting.  This discovery is going to take practice and research.  One article from IFHE discusses theories of the results of online discussion forums:

"The present study is significant in its attempts to draw on different theories to investigate the antecedents and outcomes of using ODFs along with classroom lectures. The findings indicate that facilitating discourse, reflective thinking, assessment and connectedness contribute to interactions in ODFs. From the practical perspective, the present study suggests that using multiple medium of instruction enriches the communication context and leads to enhanced learning."- M. S. Balaji, Diganta Chakrabarti, IBS Hyderabad, IFHE Universtiy, Hyderbad, India

I will discuss more about this article and others in my next blog post on how the results of different studies performed can help us, as information consumers, better share our own ideas with those around us, whether digitally or in the real world.

Brainstorming Jane Eyre

I am using different methods to research the book Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.  One of my goals is to see this book through a different lens.  I have a few different ideas that I am working on to see this book from different angles.  Some are in process and some have not taken off yet.  Let me know your opinion.

1. The Novel
 -The most important mode of research.

2. Historical Research
 -I am writing Brontë scholars about questions or their opinions.
 -I am reading scholarly articles about Jane Eyre and Charlotte Brontë.
 -I am looking at The Brontë Parsonage Museum and Brontë Society website for information.

3. Creative

 -writing poems, online picture book, playlist, food, etc. Which of these options would you like to see for Jane Eyre?

4. Media

 -I am going to watch at least two film adaptations of Jane Eyre.

 -I also want to try digital formats, such as audiobooks and PDFs.

5. Reader Perspective

 -I have asked questions about Jane Eyre on Facebook for friends who have read the book.  I am excited to hear their responses.

 -I also asked friends questions who had rated the book on Goodreads.  So far, Rachael Schiel, a fellow classmate, has responded.  Thanks Rachael!

 -To get a wider variety of responses, I have started a discussion on Goodreads.  I have never started a discussion on a web site before, so we will see how this goes.

 -I am also reading reviews and blogs about Jane Eyre.

Are there any of these research ideas that you like?  Are there any questions you have or opinions you would like to share?  I would be grateful for any comments made. 

Snubby J

   Kent Jenkins, also known as Snubby J, is a performer who is known for his YouTube videos showing him playing a PVC Pipe Instrument he made that was inspired by the Blue Man Group.  (I find the Mario Brothers Theme Song rather appropriate for this instrument.)

A picture of Snubby J's instrument

Snubby J is a student at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California, majoring in Theatre and minoring in Music.  Last summer, Snubby J appeared on the television show, America's Got Talent, and he made it to the Las Vegas round before being cut.  He also tried out to be a Blue Man; he was rejected for now but encouraged to audition again with more experience.  In the video below, he speaks of these experiences.

Here is a clip from America's Got Talent.

This young man just finished his first year of college, but he is already establishing a presence for himself online, in the music world, and on television.  

Facebook Has A New Layout?

This video has been requested in response to the previous video post of Julian Smith.  This video is of Julian experiencing the new Facebook layout.

Also, if you did not follow the previous link to one of my favorite Julian Smith videos, here it is again so you can simply watch it here on the blog.

And once again, here is the link to Julian Smith's YouTube channel.

Robert Darnton's Case for Books

Some of the ideas presented in this book have already been described wonderfully by Ariel Letts.  Like Ariel, I also ironically listened to this book, which advocates the use and need for physical books.  I really liked the points that Ariel made about the book.

Below is a short video of Robert Darnton speaking on the idea of information overload.  

It is really amazing to have the ability to search online in order to put a name to a voice and a face.  At the beginning of this clip, Darnton makes a point that he also makes in his book:

"The death of the book really is exaggerated.  More titles are produced each year than in the preceding year worldwide.  With the exception of last year which was a disaster for everyone.  The graph goes up and up and up, and it's nearly one million new titles in print.  The old-fashioned printed codex is doing very well, thank you.  But it means that we suffer from information overload.  Everyone in this room does, I'm sure, but it is not new."

I agree with Darnton that books have a purpose still in society, and that they will remain irreplaceable for many circumstances for many years to come.  As Darnton points out, other new media forms, such as radio and e-mail, have not led to the eradication of their predecessors.

Here is a link to a podcast interviewing Robert Darnton about The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future.  I think that he would have been a much better narrator for his book than the narrator that I listened to, whose slight lisp sometimes made listening difficult.  Darnton's story examples are so interesting.  If you have a few minutes, I suggest listening to the video or/and part of the podcast.

Do you agree with his view of books in the future?

Virtual Reality

I enjoy Julian Smith's channel, especially his commentary on Facebook.  However, this post, "uMove", makes me sad, because it portrays the truth.  There are many people who are losing sight of reality and imagination, who NEED technology to find enjoyment in life.  I have seen some of my younger cousins who complain if they have to use their imagination, since it is much easier for a DVD player or a video game console to entertain them.  Studies have shown that the playing of video games desensitize players to real violence.  Most video games contain some form of violence or another.

Now do not get me wrong, video games can be a good thing as well.  With two older brothers, I have played my share of games, including a lot of Mario Kart.

a song written by Sam Hart, now available on iTunes

A BYU Study showed that girls who played video games with their parents had overall strong mental health and family connectedness, as long as the game rating was age-appropriate.  Video games can be fun for a hobby and can be used as a bonding activity, but we as the players must not allow the technology to take over, maintaining our sense of reality and ability to utilize the power of the imagination.

Good Quote, Good Site, Goodreads

 When my professor brought up the fact that he did not feel he really understood something unless he could explain it to his child, I automatically thought of a quote from this man:

"If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself."
— Albert Einstein

I have some of my favorite quotes saved on my account for Goodreads.  When I thought of this quote, I was able to search my favorite quotes and found the one I was searching for.  For a girl who is obsessed with quotes, the Goodreads site has been wonderful for me.

All You Need Is A Little Creativity

Need a music video?  All you need is a good song, a white board, and a little creativity.  Here is This Town Needs Gun's "26 Is Dancier Than 4."

ReverbNation

This is one of my favorite new sites.  Musicians are able to get their music out there for other people to listen to, comment on, and attend shows.  Like the tagline on their ReverbNation’s website says, “The best tools for musicians and the best music for everyone else.”

 

I have discovered many artists from my hometown area and from Provo, Utah, where I attend school at Brigham Young University.  The benefit of doing this is finding local shows for these artists that you can attend.  I discovered this site when my friend, Jesse Jones-Blair, an aspiring musician, sent me an invitation to become a fan of his page.  I soon began exploring other artists have even downloaded some of their songs that are available.  I am also planning on attending a free show of two local artists here in Provo next weekend.

THE LOVECAPADES

   

                                                   

CALEB BLOOD

One of my favorite local artists is Nik Day.  He has a style similar to Michael Buble, Jason Mraz, and John Mayer.  Below is a music video of one of his songs called, “How Could Life Get Any Better.”

I really enjoy this site for its possibilities for music exploration and discovery.  If you have any interest in music whatsoever, I recommend this site to you.  There is music for everyone, including the music of one of my favorite pianists, George Winston.

Consuming To Create- The Power of Human Creativity

While talking with my co-worker about what my blog for my English 295 class was for, I used the phrase "consuming to create", which led to him telling me about a certain creator who I will speak more about later in the post.  We went on to talk about what is "creativity".  Everything that human beings create came from somewhere, whether that be the work of someone else, the person's surroundings, or the creator's personal experience.  To quote Albert Einstein, "Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

Like the creator Albert Einstein, another creator or two have some words on the subject:

 We all probably know who Pablo Picasso is, but the creator that my co-worker told me about is Banksy.  Banksy is a grafitti artist from England.  His identity is unknown, but his work is seen and known in many places around the world, commenting on social and political issues.

 

The above telephone booth is the work of Banksy in downtown LA. 

This link leads to another London telephone booth work by Banksy and some other results of creativity at work.  

My co-worker and I also discussed what determines the value of the work someone produced.  He commented that a lot depends on where the work came from.  As an example, wise words always seem to be more profound to a reader when he/she knows the quote came from someone famous.  Jay Leno said, "You're not famous until my mother has heard of you."  Blogging is one way to get your ideas out to the world, show your creative voice, while utilizing the information at your fingertips.  You never know, one day someone's mother may have heard of you. 

It's A Boy!

This is my new cute little nephew, Benjamin Jesse Lewis, born on May 8, 2011 (yes, he was a late Mother's Day present for my sister-in-law).  Everyone is so excited to welcome Ben to the family!

I went over to visit my brother and his family on Sunday afternoon, only to discover that the baby was on its way, and I was the designated contraction timer.  None of us could remember if you were supposed to time the contractions from the beginning of the last one to the start of the current one, or from the end of the last one to the beginning of the current contraction.  Our first thought, consult the Internet.  Consult I did to find a search result for a site called Contraction Master: Your FREE, online contraction timing assistant!  This site was started by a husband and father who was frustrated with the typical pen and paper process of figuring out contraction times, durations, and frequencies.  Not only did this site answer our question (the answer is from the beginning of the past contraction to the start of the current contraction), it provided a much simpler and accurate way of keeping track of the information while being able to help out with other tasks that needed to be completed before the parents headed to the hospital.  Ben was born just a few hours later, and everything went well. 

When I was younger, you found out about a birth within your circle of family and friends through word of mouth, by talking in person or on the phone.  Then, people began utilizing the Internet, sending out e-mails to announce their child's birth.  Yesterday, my brother did call immediate family to announce the birth, but most communication was done through other streams of communication.  Before Jason and Heather even left for the hospital, they posted on their blog and sent out text messages to let everyone know that it was GO TIME.  At three in the morning, less than four hours after the birth of their newborn son, Jason texted and posted again with birth information, pictures, and how mommy and baby were doing.  

It is for events like this that I feel so blessed to have modern technology in my life.  Both positive and negative effects can result from technology, just like anything in life.  In this case, technology was wonderful, allowing family and friends to gather virtually together to celebrate a special event.

Rainbows End- A Novel With One Foot In The Future

The book Rainbows End was both intriguing and frustrating to me.  The continuity of the plot was off in my opinion; Vinge's approach of starting off with a conflict and getting you interested and excited about it, leads to endless pages where the initial conflict is barely mentioned, to only jerkily return to the conflict at the end of the book.  Both times that the storyline changed this dramatically it felt like hitting a wall.  You had to pick up the pieces of new information (and your brain) and follow the new conflict presented.  I enjoyed Robert Gu's journey of being reintroduced into a world all new to him, and how he reacts to the prevalence of technology in this world and his new role in this world.  However, it was frustrating, because I do not feel like either storyline was tied up as neatly as I would have wished.  Looking up information online, I found that a sequel is rumored to this book.  Part of me wants to read this new novel to see if the storyline would have a more complete ending to me, but part of me does not wish to bother, having already been disappointed with the ending of the first book. 

Overall the book was successful in raising interesting questions about the future of technology.  How much control are we giving over to technology?  How plugged in are we into the technological world, and is that level too absorbed to be capable of relying on ourselves, or perhaps too unabsorbed so that we cannot function successfully in today's society?  This book may have been set in the future, but like many futuristic novels, Rainbows End is a mirror in order for us to take a good luck at ourselves today.

The Future of Technology

Rollable scrunchable video screens.

This is what one company, E Ink, the ones who invented the screen for the Kindle, are trying to accomplish.  These screens would be attached to cloth and other materials.  The video seen from this link shows an e-ink display sewn right into some Tyvex cloth, a tough paper-like cloth used for shipping envelopes.

Reinvented Microscope Which Scans An Entire Large Area At Once.

Traditional scanning microscopes scan bits of an image at a time to create an overall image.  This new microscope, designed by Fraunhofer, captures the whole image simultaneously.  The design of this product is quite small, so a doctor could simply hold it in his/her hand to scan for skin cancer or for someone to possibly scan your passport.  There are many possibilities for this device, especially in the fields of medicine and government.

Mind-controlled headband.

Now, this invention initially made me laugh.  Cat ear headband, made by Neurowear,  that reflects your thoughts.  These headbands include sensors for reading brainwaves.  The ears are designed to act like a natural body part; they spring to attention when the wearer focuses and droop as a person relaxes their thoughts.  Right now these ears are considered fashionable, but this concept has the possibility of helping people with health problems that make communication difficult.  

Huge Interactive Display Navigation System in 3-D.

Affective Intelligent Driving Agent (AIDA), a creation by MIT, socially interacts with the driver and reads the driver's facial expressions to gauge the inferred route and destination preferences of the driver.  This display is  slightly obnoxious, covering the whole dashboard and even overlays onto the rearview mirrors, but the concept holds promise for a navigation system that is more interactive than others systems and is not a handheld device, which can also be found distracting.

As I read about many of these inventions on the Popular Science website, I was intrigued to see technological concepts also seen in Vinge's Rainbows End.  It is absolutely amazing how quickly technology is advancing.  The durable, medium transferable video screens show the potential to have displays on new products such as clothing.  The new microscope technology has promise for progress in the medical field of finding health problems such as cancer; perhaps, furthering the research to find a cure for cancer.  The headband that is controlled by brainwaves may lead to a better understanding of social communication.  And last but not least, the interactive navigation system, a concept similar to "wearing" in Vinge's novel.  When "wearing", a reader can control the appearance of his/her surroundings and find out information about the things, places, and people they are seeing.  This navigation display is somewhat how I envision Vinge's characters seeing information about their surroundings in the book, except their display may be "slightly" more advanced.  It is fascinating to me how far technology is coming, and its impact on society.  These inventions may or may not be very important, only time will tell.  Would you use any of these products, and if so, which ones and why?  

So Many Pages . . . So Little Time

240
 400
  56
  14
+53
763 pages of reading material this week!
+unknown amount of reading research material for an essay due on Friday
A LOT OF READING!!!


This is the reading load of the average English major college student.  Sadly, when trying to throw in other basic elements of the college experience such as food, sleep, work, and (if you are lucky) a social life, it is difficult to find the time to do all of that reading.

Sometimes, this leads to detail-oriented reading, when you do "quality" reading instead of quantity reading.  Students do not have the time to waste on reading 800 pages of information when some of that reading is not always applicable to what they are trying to learn.  The result is picking through a text searching for relevant information for what you are specifically trying to learn about.

There is one blessing that I have discovered through my audiobook experience with Rainbows End.  Multitasking is a beautiful thing.  Today, I listened while pinning lock cylinders at work, while walking to school and home, and while doing a big pile of dishes (our whole apartment keeps busy).  What ways have you found to help your reading experience as a scholar?  I would love some new tips, especially now that I am working more hours at my job than ever before.

Computer Clothing? Constant Communication & Companionship? Commonplace.

In the futuristic novel Rainbows End, you can basically wear a computer, through clothing incorporated with hardware.  As we discussed this idea in class and how society is reaching a point where we could always carry a computer, I thought to myself, we already do.  

Cell Phones.

True, cell phones are not full-out computers, but every day they get closer to this point.  And each and every day, we come to rely more and more on our phones to gather information.  Right now, smart phones have the capability to perform multiple advanced computing tasks.  A smart phone allows the user to run applications under a complete operating system.  Below are some videos explaining some of the features of one of the most popular smartphones, the iphone 4.

These cell phones allow people to look up all sorts of information at the click of a button from anywhere that they receive service.  My family members and friends who have smartphones, instead of other cell phone models, seem to be even more attached to these "mini computers," which also include apps and games simply to entertain and fill time when bored or waiting.

Now, for story time.  The reason I was inspired to blog about cell phones today is because I have recently found myself without my cell phone.  I do not have a smartphone.  My phone is called a feature phone, a kind of predecessor to the smart phone in its range of capabilities.  I have a R500 Samsung Hue, which I use to make phone calls, keep track of appointments on my calendar, a calculator, the occasional weather checker, and my personal alarm clock.

Last Friday, the charger for this little device, that I am reliant on for so many circumstances, broke, leaving me with a dead phone today.  Before my phone died, I had kept it turned off only turning it on to check for voice mails.  It has been an odd feeling to not have the security of knowing that you can always call someone or someone can contact you when needed.  During my lunch break at work, I decided to check my voice mails to find that I had five messages from loved ones, friends, and my boss trying to contact me.  Clearly in our society, the cell phone has become an expected extension of the human body.

Now, you may have noticed earlier that I did not mention text messaging as a use of my cell phone.  That was not by accident.  I do not have text messaging.  My particular phone model has the capability to text, but texting is blocked on my phone plan.  This means that I do not even receive a notification that a person attempted to send me a text.  In my experience, most cell phone users (of all ages) tend to assume that everyone has texting.  My new boss offered to text me her cell phone number so I would be able to reach her while she was out of town.  My English professor asked if he could simply notify our class members through text messaging.  The way that we communicate is obviously changing.  As we become a more technologically reliant society, we appear to be forgetting how to function otherwise, or/and become frustrated with those who do not keep up.  Where does this leave us?  Hopefully, remembering what a blessing technology is in our lives...without forgetting how to rely upon ourselves.

Audiobooks: A Foreign Format

For my Writing about Literature in the Digital Age class, we are reading the book, Rainbows End, by Vernor Vinge.  One of the requirements for this class is to experience one of the required books in a digital format.  I decided to listen to Rainbows End on audiobook.  (I also acquired one of the other required texts on audiobook, The Case for Books.)  I have only listened to one other audiobook in my life, but it was simply for entertainment purposes.  A whole new experience takes place when you are searching academically for information within a text.  I am someone who is a visual learner, so as you can imagine, I like to feel the paper in my hand and view the words upon the physical page.  With audiobooks, elements of the reading experience are lost.  You cannot see the words upon the page, so how names are spelled is non-existent.  It is more difficult to look back to a certain part in the text to review what you read.  As a reader, I have also found it more difficult to keep track of characters and follow the storyline.

On the other hand, I have discovered that my mind is slowly learning how to focus while listening to Rainbows End, so that I can collect the needed information.  I do not know if I think that audiobooks will ever be able to take the place of physical books in their ability to help human beings process combinations of words into functional ideas, but hopefully like Miri says on page forty-six of Rainbows End, "With some practice, you should be able to see and hear as good as anyone."