Tag Archives: Identity

Open Canvas

Hello Ds106ers and the rest of ya too! It has been a while since my Bava Light has been burning at full capacity, but never mind all that- I am here to say that I am back! At least I hope so, I got lost a bit in the shuffle of DS106 Radio and the previous audio assignments, no excuses, just lost the itch. I guess this is normal in a 15 week MOOC course. One that I am in no way obliged to take, and one which I am receiving no “credit” except for the satisfaction of pushing myself and making some art! Enough looking backwards, let’s see where we are now. First of course there is the latest assignment Telling Stories in The Web:

you will be intervening in the code and design of a website of your choice to tell a story. You are not to photoshop the design of the site (if you can), but rather intervene in the actual html and CSS of the site—though you can photoshop particular images on the site.

The great aspiration from Martha:

I want students to have to grapple with the code. It’s not that I expect them all to become expert coders or even to understand everything they encounter, but I do want them to develop a basic understanding and healthy respect for what goes on under the hood of a Web page.

I want them to develop an understanding of the architecture of a page: how do HTML and CSS work together? How is content separated from design?

I want them to think about how a story can be told in a single page. Web pages are complex information spaces. There are often a myriad of opportunities on a page to let a story unfold: menus, titles, texts of articles, texts of links. What do these elements represent rhetorically and how can we use them to construct a single-page narrative?

I want them to think about the choices we’re making as we tell our story. The Web provides us with a truly unlimited platform of spaces to co-opt for narrative. As we choose the site to build upon or through, I want to talk about what that choice represents. And as we enact the story in that space, I want to keep interrogating those choices.

Finally the great tutorial that made it all so easy. Wow! Crazy huh? I know. If I am to understand this right, I can take any website, play under the hood, and change the entire look, feel, and message by manipulating the code? Sounds like magic. Like subversive-web-culture jamming. Sounds like Bansky on HTML. Sounds like fun. What’s that Obama?

Is that really Sarah Palin?

A new movie about Glenn Beck? Don’t believe me? See the site for yourself here.

Pretty intense I know. The more I played, the more my mind spun. I had a very hard time forcing my mind to settle on one major narrative. I could could not create lasting take, so I played with a few short poems. I dabbled. I tweaked. I played. I think I began to learn and understand the lesson Martha intended, as there were times when I wanted to change an image but it was written in a script or in Flash or in some other language I do not speak. (Yet!) I did however began to see the web in a much different light. It is much more malleable and fluid that I had thought. It can be so easily manipulated to make one idea seem like another. Our images, our words, everything on the web is a few code edits away from being something completely different. What does this mean in an age where the Internet holds so much of our knowledge, or ideas, our identities? What does it mean that we have created a world, a vault, a mirror of ourselves that can be warped and reshaped by any member? What do words like Truth, Real, Authentic mean in this world? How do we learn in a world where nothing can be trusted, even with our own eyes? How can we influence others? How are we manipulated? What values must we understand, create, or share in a world where we share a space which we can all alter and change?

Beyond these questions and the silliness of the sort of political satire I shared above, there are a myriad of educational implications for students. They must understand the all too easy deception that can occur on the web. More importantly they can (should?) begin to understand how to manipulate the web to tell their own stories as well, which I think was the point of this assignment. No matter which side of the screen a student is on- we should be made aware of how the experiences of web are created.

I find it hilarious that we so often warn students not to trust Wikipedia, because anyone can edit the pages. Nevermind that this crowdsourced space is most likely the most democratic form of knowledge creation we have ever known, but now anyone can easily fiddle with a little code and recreate a mirage or a smoke screen to create an alternative reality. A different story. Nothing on the web is safe or static from our imaginations. Read the fine print carefully:

What implications does this have on the idea of teaching kids about digital identity? Even if they groom and tend their online brand to perfection, someone can easily alter it as easily as they can spray paint a wall.

I apologize if this post is all over the place, but I have been like this all week. I feel like the very structure of the web has been removed and now I see it as a wide open canvas on which I can play. Not only can I create original content and carve out legitimate specs online for my own expression, but now I can also alter and manipulate the work of others. Like all post-modern, subversive, culture jamming street art, with great power comes great responsibility. Issues like ownership and copyright and creative commons and common decency are all muddled together into a great big ball of gray area. Perhaps uncle Walt has something to say:

There is also a post in here somewhere about how much fun it was to learn something brand new and play with my limitations. A post about how excited I was to follow the tutorial for awhile, only to take detours and see where I could go on my own. There is a post in here about the joy of discovery and that moment, when you realize you know how to do something you didn; before and suddenly a small piece of the world makes that much more sense. But I am too tired to write that post tonight, hopefully you can stitch together the pieces yourself from what is here.

Join me in the comments-What do you think about all this? This conversation could be lots of fun.

Custom Headers

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I am a big fan of blogs. This is no secret to readers of this blog. I think they are useful for teachers, students, parents, writers and non-writers a like. With more and more online activity and participation with social media, I see blogs as the personal space each one of us carves out of cyber-space to set up shop and build a home. Like a homestead in the frontier days, blogs are plots of space designated for our voices. The more I work with students and blogs, I am finding that personalization of this space increases authentic engagement.

The thing about blogging is that it is not automatic. It does not come easy to most students and they don’t particularity like it. I have been blogging with middle school ESL classes since October and we are just now at a place where I feel comfortable with their blogs and valuable spaces. Having said that, most of them are still only writing “assignments.” I have tried very hard to encourage personal writing beyond what I “expect” as portfolio posts. It is hard work convincing students to create a space that is both personal and dedicated to school. It is confusing and unnatural and I get that, but I believe if done with patience and love, students can find a voice that fits both their personal and professional selves.

A few weeks ago. I decided ask my students to create custom headers, and it was through this task that I feel many of them turned a corner. Suddenly, their blogs were their spaces. Sure they had all already chosen a theme, but after creating a header I saw students begin to change font styles and colors. A few students began to write posts on their own, and I could see them beaming with pride about their space. In the process, they learned a few tech skills as well.

I asked them to find (Flickr Creative Commons) or use four images that represented who they are. “When someone comes to your blog, what is it about you, that you want them to see? What do you look like in images?” We then used the collage feature on Picnik to create headers. We spoke about color, balance, composition. They added frames and finally, many of them were forced to name their blogs something other than, “My blog.” Some wanted to match the colors of their titles to the live link colors on their blogs. So we explored how to find the color codes on blogs and what that means in terms of design. I had several students change their headers three or four times in a few days, till they got it right. One student, Theo who rarely speaks in class decided to use Keynote instead and created his own header.

Another aspect of the blogs that I feel helps students feel connected is actually adding a picture and a short bio. I know there is a lot of fear of revealing too much information, but there is something to be said about personalizing their space in a responsible way. It must be difficult for students to know what to do if we are constantly giving them mixed messages. On one hand, we tell them to open up and share their voices on line, but then we tell them to be scared and weary of strangers.

The thing about blogs is that they are designed to meet new people. Blogs are about strangers finding similarities and making connections. How can we expect students to create worthwhile content and build authentic audience if they only post school assigned posts and share little to know personal information? There must be a balance, that is obvious, but I have found that the custom header and the brief profile have made our class blogs feel much more like home. Feel free to snoop around our class blog and see for yourself; most of the students now have a custom header.

In short, if you are struggling with blogging with your students, let them personalize their space so they can better connect with it. If not you may find student blogs to be lifeless folders where students dump assignments, another hoop they are learning to jump through.

Far From Home On A Dark Night

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Last week a friend sent me this link to a video of the late night breakdown by one of the pioneers of blogging Justin Hall. I had never heard of him, and still no little about his story. The clip has haunted me for a few days, as I have watched it several times, but it wasn’t until tonight that I heard my remix. Throughout this week, I have also been obsessed with the latest single form the new Iron and Wine album Kiss Each Other Clean. I had mentioned before that the song makes me feel like flying. I strummed it on the guitar today and felt very empowered, but back to tonight- I was listening to one and thinking about the other, cant remember which was which, when I realized that they mirror each other well. There is a sense of hope and desperation in both pieces of art, and I wanted to capture that juxtaposition. I felt a sudden sense of urgency to get this project done. I hope to re-do in a few days, with perhaps me singing the song instead of the recorded track, but will see how that turns out, or if I run out of energy.

It is this dialectical relationship and tension between hope and desperation I find so fascinating. This relationship is seen in everything we do: art, work, the web itself…

Far From Home On A Dark Night by intrepidflame

We Are Echoes and Refections

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Whenever I speak with people about openness and sharing, I feel the need to preface my philosophy by saying, “Well not everyone will feel comfortable sharing as much as I do.” It is almost as if I am doing something wrong, and to be honest I am not sure if sharing my every thought on the Internet is the best idea. I too struggle with my own demons, and I am not so naive to think that I am impervious to a break down, much like this, at any time.

That’s the thing about all of this; we don’t really know where we are headed. Those who say they do, the experts, publish article after article presenting research to prove which ever side suits their argument best. Each of us needs to take inventory of our privacy and intimacy and weigh it against openness and community. Is what you consider to be private more or less valuable to you on the inside or on your sleeve? There is not right or wrong answer. All I know is that I have had some amazing experiences over the years by being open and having faith in the goodness of people and trusting in the power of creativity. I have written about the Heart of the Internet, Trust and Community,and Peaking Out From The Edges; I have spoken about Life as an Open Book; others have written about stalking me, or shared stories about my work at conferences. Even after all of this, the connections seem to be becoming more complex and sophisticated. After four years of living online, I am still surprised on an almost daily basis by the generosity of the human spirit and our need to be creative collectivity.

For every paranoid news story about the Internet that forces parents and teachers to cry privacy, I feel the need to populate the web with a story like this one- I recently discovered a great site called SoundCloud, which is a great portfolio for my music. I use the word portfolio, but my music is not anything that can be classified as professional, but it is mine and it makes me happy. Each song, like my photos, my films, my blog posts is an illustration of my journey. I am not concerned with value judgments like good or bad. Like I tell my students, learning is not about success or failure, it is about growth and change. Learning is at the heart of evolution. I suppose we could grow and learn and evolve in privacy and in isolation, but where is the fun in that. We could be scared or insecure to share any aspect of our creativity for fear of being judged, but I choose bravery instead.

Sorry. Back to the story, I have begun to upload my small catalog of recorded music. Why? Because experience has taught me that if you share yourself with honesty and passion and love, the universe will send back echoes and reflections that remind you that you are not a single lonely self, but a pixel in the larger picture of humanity. I don’t write too many original songs. I am not good at it, and I find it extremely difficult. I can take a decent photograph; I am getting better at turning a word or two, but when it comes to music- I am weighed down with doubt. I know what music does to my soul, and I know that my singing is awkward and insecure. I can hear the doubt and tension. I play with apprehension, which ironically is the opposite of what music should do.

Sorry. Back to the story, I upload music anyway. I guess in a way I want to set an example. If I ask my student to express themselves online, I cannot with a clear conscious not do the same. It takes a lot of guts to allow the world into your heart and by singing online, I am able to assuage my fear.

No words could express how amazing it feels when something that you put into the world so tenderly could sound like this:

Falling out of Cars by onepercentyellow

This is a song I wrote and sang a few years ago. I posted my version on SoundCloud a few days ago:

Falling Out Of Cars by intrepidflame

and Leslie took it and made it her own. I am not sure what this means. I am not sure I know. I am not sure if I can articulate it. I am not sure you need it explained, but there is magic in what has happened here. There is beauty in these acts. There is love. There is community. This sharing and connection and creation brings me joy, and honestly that is all I have ever wanted. Please take these songs, the photos, the films, the text, the pieces of me and make them a part of you. We are echoes and refections posing as individuals.

Update: (This was written a few days after original post)

Of course this story didn’t end there. Once Keri Lee got wind of the project she added her own brand of loveliness.

Falling out of Cars 3 by klbeasley

Curious to see where it goes now. Take it and run….

Intro to ds#106

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The day has finally come. Jim Groom’s ds#106 class has officially begun. You can read this for details of this first week, but if you are reading this you are most likely a member of the class. Curious how you introduce yourself to hundreds? of people, but we will see how many and who responds. It still feels like Jim is responding to every post and Tweet which is lunacy, but that is part of the reason why I am here. The guy is nuts and I look forward to seeing how he manages this beast.

Seriously though, the thing that attracted me to this course was more that his Bava persona, like Hunter S. Thompson, Jim is more than his online character. Both Jim and Hunter tend to push envelopes and grate at people sensibilities, but underneath that bravado is complex depth and seriousness to what all this means. And by this I mean art, human beings, technology, film, you name it. And if next week’s readings are any indication it is going to be one helluva a ride. Not too be out done by Alan “Show off” Levine, here is my intro:

If you are new to my blog and want to know more. Please feel free to follow the crubs around this maze I call my Personal Cyberinfrastructure. Home page probably best place to start.