It seemed to have an air of greater formality. The rule of your profile name actually was your name. Peoples statuses seemed to actually reflect what they were doing, not some abstract song quote. It took some time, but gradually, to function well in the “Facebook world” I developed know-how. I tagged some pictures. I joined a group. And denied to add that creeper from elementary school. I still find myself unsure of how to write in this blog medium.In the same sense, even if you can produce media, you also need to be able to interpret what others produce. Communication is a two way street. Generally the greatest speakers are also great listeners. Great writers are well read. As McCloud explains in his “Sequential Art/Comic” many artists will search for a great influence to model their work after. They focus their works on someone else’s greatness, while striving for their own unique “new” creation. As a musician myself, I find understanding with this influence. I have listened over and over to various recordings of great trumpet players such as Maynard Ferguson and Wynton Marsalis. (Wynton Marsalis playing Carnival of Venice) although never intending to duplicate their playing, I find that I have taken things that great trumpet players used, an applied them to my own musicianship. I hold my trumpet the same way that Ferguson did. Small influences from a great many of media affect the way we produce our own mark.
I disagree with Williamson’s take on multimodality in the classroom. Granted, as technology has evolved and changed the world around us, so has the classroom, but I say that the classroom has always been adapting to what students needed. There never was a day when teachers “just spoke” to their pupils. The classroom setting has however evolved to offer more “hands on learning” for things that are being developed at the time. Surely it would seem ridiculous for schools to teach proper etiquette on how to send a telegram. It would not surprise me if schools stopped teaching students how to write in cursive. When was the last time you used it? Im not even sure if I still can…Students are more or less taught what the will be using in the five to ten years after they leave the classroom.
McCloud’s comic demonstrates a great take on the five areas of multimodal literacy: linguistic, visual, spatial, gestural, and audio. It really amazes me how the human mind can interpret what it obtains visually, and apply it to the other four senses. His renditions of sound effect are symbolized with bold italic capital letters outlined in shapes that draw our mind to that sound. Words that need more emphasis are bolded out, sometimes in capital letters.
Phew.
Enough for now. I might come back to this later, but its time for bed.
2 comments:
I agree with your ideas on the differnt modes of communication. We are growing up in a very technological world. People our age have texting, emails, Myspace, and Facebook. As a new mode of communication begins people have to learn how to communication in that mode.
From my own personal experience in the classroom, i am more of a hands - on learner. I could spend all the time in the world reading page after page in a textbook, but nothing ever seems to sink in. I liked how you used facebook and myspace as metaphors to communication. For any literary piece, i guess one can say that the reader has to adapt to the author's writing and thought processes; and the same goes for facebook or myspace. Every new member has to adapt to the new system in order to communicate with others propery and effectively. I liked how you used McCloud's example of how one tends to use an icon to influence his own work - it's so true, plenty of people say i want to be like that superhero or i want to be able to write stories like Hemingway, etc, etc.
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