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=ENED 8741 Personal Research Log=

1. **Discourse**: Gee distinguishes between a person's primary Discourse and its distinctive language use (which he mostly refers to as 'discourse' and their secondary Discourses and their respective language uses."

"Our primary Discourse involves 'face to face communication with intimates' and is the Discourse of our immediate group."

"We each belong to just one primary Discourse, which shapes who and what we initially are as persons."

Secondary Discourses -- through interaction with school, church, sports, community, etc. -- have their own distinctive languages, and they shape our identities in particular ways -- speaking, acting, moving, dressing, etc. p. 18

2. **Literacy:** "A powerful literacy is not a specific literacy per se but, rather, a way of using a literacy. He defines literate as having control or fluent mastery, of language uses with what he calls scondary Discourses."

"Gee defines **Discourses** as 'ways of being in the world', which integrate words, acts, gestures, attitudes, beliefs, purposees, clothes, bodily movements and positions, and so on." (p. 17)
 * "One of the hottest 'literacies' going around in this sense is '**digital literacy**.'"

Lanham (1995) claims that 'literacy' has extended its semantic reach from meaning 'the ability to read and write' to now meaning 'the ability to understand information however presented'. p. 21

From the ETS perspective, **digital literacy** can be seen as 'the ability to use digital technology, communication tools and/or networks appropriately to solve information problems in order to function in an information society." p. 23

3. **Mindsets**: "New literacies is a useful way to conceptualize what might be seen as one component of an unfolding 'literacy dialectic'. By a dialectic we mean a kind of transcendence, in which two forces that exist in tension with one another 'work out their differences,' as it were, and evolve into something bears the stamp of both yet is qualitatively different from each of them."


 * Wikipedia** defn:

A mindset, in decision theory and general systems theory, refers to a set of assumptions, methods or notations held by one or more people or groups of people which is so established that it creates a powerful incentive within these people or groups to continue to adopt or accept prior behaviours, choices, or tools. This phenomenon of cognitive bias is also sometimes described as mental inertia, "groupthink", or a "paradigm", and it is often difficult to counteract its effects upon analysis and decision making processes.

4. **Mindset 1**: "The world is much the same as before, only now it is more tehnologized, or technologized in more sophisticated ways:

physical-industrial terms; value is a function of society; focus on individual intelligence expertise and authority located in individuals and institutions; space as

enclosed and purpose-specific; social relations of 'bookspace'; a stable textual order.

5. **Mindset 2**: The world is very different from before and largely as a result of the emergence and uptake of digital electronic inter-networked technologies:

cannot be understood or responded to in physical-industrial terms; value is a function of dispersion; products are enabling; focus on collective intelligence; expertise

and authority are distributed and collective; hybrid experts space as open, continuous, fluid social relations of emerging 'digital media space'; texts in change.

6. **Web 1.0 v. Web 2.0**

Web 1.0 /Web 2.0

Ofoto/ Flickr Britannica Online/ Wikipedia Personal Websites/ Blogging Publishing /Participation Content Management Systems /Wikis Directories/ Tagging (folksonomy) Netscape /Google || For each photo or set of photos account holders upload to their site they can add a number of 'tags'. these are words they think describe their photo and that would lead other people who key the word(s) into the Flickr search engine to their photos." p. 47.
 * 7. **Folksonomy**: "The basis of folksonomy is 'tagging'. Flicker is a service that allows people to post photos to the web after they have signed up for an account.

8. **Folksonomy** (defn): "A folksonomy is a 'popular', non-expert, bottom-up classification management system, developed on the basis of how 'authors' (e.g. of photos) decide they want their works to be described or 'catalogued'. p. 48.

9. **Google-bombing:** Deliberately manipulating page ranks by creating multiple links that use a specific phrase or "anchor text" to click through to a target site in order to associate the target site with the anchor text. This process can be used to make a social statement.

10. **Google-whacking:** A game or competition where the goal is to generate a two-word search with just one solitary search result. The more bizarre the two-word search term, the better.

11. **Machinima:** the term used to describe the process by which fans use video game animation engines and computer-generated imagery (CGI) to render new animated texts on their desktop computers.

12. **Affinity spaces**: specially designed spaces (physical and virtual) constructed to resource people [who are] tied together... by a shared interest of endeavor... create a social space in which people can, to any degree they wish, small or large, affiliate with others to share knowledge and gain knowledge that is distributed and dispersed across many different people, places, sites and modalities (magazines, chat rooms, guides, recordings).

13. **Remix**: the idea of someone mixing things together and then someone else coming along and remixing that thing they have created.... Remix is the general condition of cultures: no remix, no culture. We remix language every time we draw on it, and we remix meanings every time we take an idea or an artefact or a word and integrate it into what we are saying and doing at the time.

14. **Image Remixing** -- can take various forms -- adding text to images, creating photo montages (including prankster type remixes that place the head of a famous person on a nude body, or the body of an animal), changing image properties (e.g., changing the colors or image focus, fiddling with brightness level or shading, etc.). Some of the most common uses of image remixing include for fun (including hoaxes), for expressing solidarity or affinity, and for making political points. Images of all three kinds are often propagated as "memes."

15. **Memes**: Contagious patterns of cultural information that are passed from mind to mind and that directly shape and propagate key actions and mindsets of a social group. Memes include popular tunes, catch-phrases, clothing fashions, architectural styles, ways of doing things, and so one. p. 128-9. Successful memes have fidelity, fecundity, and longevity.

16. **Fidelity**: refers to qualities of the meme that enable relatively straightforward 'copying' of the meme, that keep it relatively 'intact' as it passes from mind to mind.

17. **Fecundity**: refers to the rate at which an idea or pattern is copied and spread. In other words, the more quickly a meme spreads, the more likely it is that it will capture robust and sustained attention, and will be replicated and distributed.

18. **Longevity**: The longer a meme survives, the more it can be copied and passed on to new minds, ensuring its ongoing transmission.

19. **Counter-meming**: Purposefully generating memes that aim to neutralize or defeat potentially harmful ideas.

20. **Darn Good Quote** (p. 258): "Educators who spend serious time hanging out and practicing new literacies in online spaces devoted to interests they are passionate about are likely to understand how and why so much classroom appropriation of new technologies is ineffective, wasteful, and wrongheaded. For a start, they are likely to see that effective use of the internet calls for sustained continuous periods online with minimal constraints." ||  ||
 * 21. "**New ethos**" : the concept of sharing, participating, and collaborating -- as opposed to the "official" version.
 * 21. "**New ethos**" : the concept of sharing, participating, and collaborating -- as opposed to the "official" version.

22. **Digital Literacy:** deciphering the "complex" of image, sound, and text.

23. **Fanfiction:** (p. 32) Stories about characters or settings in original works written by fans of the original work.

24. **Webquest**: Activities in which some or all of the info that learners interact with comes from resources on the internet.

25. **Transmedia Navigation**: the ability to deal with the flow of stories and info across multiple modalities. (illustrating a story using different media than original printed text)

26. **Commoncraft.com:** A great site that provides explanations for various tools and services on the internet.

27. **snopes.com**: A site that reports on frauds and misinformation circulating online.

28. **wikispaces**: a site that makes setting up a wiki quite easy.

29. **remixamerica**: a site that assists users in creating and publishing a remix.

30. **delicious:** a bookmarking site -- (like a card catalog) -- where you can file your "favorites" and connect to them from any computer. Also allows users to see other people's favorite "bookmarks."

31. **wordnik.com**: search engine about words. Useful for English teachers!

32. **Audacity**: audio editing and recording.

33. **crooksandliars.com**: blog site which focuses on stories of political corruption/untruths etc.

34. **zamzar**: for downloading video.

35. **divx.com:** downloading software. ||