Blog 4

The topic I chose for my final paper will be on how I feel that handwriting and cursive will be obsolete with the introduction of new technologies. My thesis statement would be that "Cursive will shortly become obsolete and there will be no need to teach script to students in the near future".
The two articles I chose to include in this paper are: The Curse of Cursive; Penmanship, like hieroglyphics and the IBM Selectric, has lost its purpose. Let's erase it for good. The article argues that teaching handwriting in schools is going to be considered irrelevant...the article also comments on a book which makes points to support the importance of teaching cursive in schools. The other article I want to use in my paper is High Tech Note Taking, and it goes into detail about how, with new technology, you can now write on a "tablet PC" and transfer your handwritten notes right onto your computer...which would essentially obliterate the need for pen and paper. I got the idea for this paper the other night when I was scribbling my name on paper in (very sloppy) cursive, realizing the the reason it was so sloppy was because I never use script anymore. Then I wondered if they even still taught handwriting in elementary school (which I then found out they do) and figured that it might be a dead subject to teach in a couple years, seeing how quickly technology is converging.

Blog #2

Chapter 1 of Convergence Culture talks about the CBS show "Survivor" and the internet community of "spoilers" that try to find out as many secrets about the show as they possibly can. The article Media Lullabies: The Reinvention of the World Wide Web discusses the theory of convergence in more detail, more specifically how new technology is related to old technology. Some key ideas in the readings are the ideas of new technology being built from old technology, the ideas of online communities, and spoiling. The Media article talks about comparing the radio to TV and TV to the internet and how while you can compare them, they aren't separate entities but rather metamorphoses of each other. Convergence Culture discusses the idea of internet communities, groups of people who communicate for one reason or another. It talks about groups called Spoilers and how they work together to achieve a common goal. As far as spoiling is concerned, Convergence culture talks about this in detail, and in this case it is specifically referring to the show "Survivor", and how fans try to find out details about the show before it airs and share it with their community of other spoilers. The most difficult concept for me with the readings was probably delving deep into the online communities and just how consuming they are. In class this week I think we should discuss some other online communities and the effect they are having on our society. Online communities relate to the "real world" or my life mostly because I am online all the time and there are many things that i know myself and other individuals around the world relate to. There is a book series I am very into, and it is hugely popular around the country and with just one google search i know i can find multiple online communities discussing it.

Link to in-class project:http://strategicplanner.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/understanding-convergence/