While clearing my desk at work this week, I was trying to empty my “To Look At” folder.  This folder holds newspaper clippings, magazine articles, and advertisements that I should consider for one reason or another.  I found an articile from the Philadelphia Inquirer that I have been considering since July, 2007:  Still Looking at Blackbirds” in Katie Haegele’s DigitaLit column.  Ms. Haegele examined a piece of digital poetry by Edward Picot, 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, which is inspired by the Wallace Steven’s poem.  Picot has used animation to . . . augment . . . recreate . . . digitize . . . innovate the poem.  As a former teacher and an aspiring writer, I love that Picot is able to include his notes on writing the poem.  It is a delightful piece and it is worth looking at Picot’s work on his web site and his other web site, The Hyperliterature Exchange.

I have been taking a graduate course, Writing for Electronic Communities, which is just about over.  I have come to appreciate all that the electronic world has to offer for writing and I look forward to the time to explore my own hypertext creations, including this blog and my other blog, View From the Rear Window.  Look for future postings on my endeavors!

In an e-mail update from eSchool News, I read an article entitled, “Blogging helps encourage teen writing:  Survey reveals that student bloggers are more prolific and appreciate the value of writing more than their peers”.  This article is based on a survey conducted by Pew Internet and others.  The main finding was that students who blog out of school write more in school.  Other interesting items were that students think “it would help their writing if their teachers used computer-based writing tools such as games, multimedia, or writing software programs or web sites during class”. 

I found this article particularly interesting because of my graduate course, Writing for Electronic Communities, and of my work.  At work, I am facilitating the revision of the 9th grade College Prep English Curriculum.  Just today I gave the committee a list of areas that we still need to address, one of which included use of technology as a tool for learning, along with looking at how we teach writing and what types of writing will be required in 9th grade.  Within the writing, incorporating a variety of computer-based tools, such as the Review Function in MS Word for writing, editing, and revision was an item that was identified, as well as incorporating avenues for publication which makes the writing authentic, digital avenues such as blogs, group web sites, Voice Thread.  I would say that most of the teachers on this committe, most of the teachers in the English Department in general, do not have the knowledge or comfort in working with these media.  Their students might.  The challenge for them as we implement this curriculum next year will be to learn the media and techniques.  I will facilitate workshops/professional development opportunities for them, with myself and with others such as the technical staff and school media specialist. 

Since the goal is to get students to write and to advance in their writing, we will work very hard to meet this end.  But here is a question for those who use some or all of the technology mentioned:  how do you assess the work of the students? I would love some responses from anyone who works in this area. 

I think that it would put my teachers at ease to know that they are not alone in working with these media and that I am not leading them to some unknown, uncharted territory — like Columbus’s crew who must have thought that they were going to fall off the end of the earth.  I, personally, am excited and can’t wait to embark on this endeavor.  Our high school has enough of an electronic infrastructure that students and teachers should and can be successful. 

I love trying new things and embrace change!

I bought the new issue of Artful Blogging on Friday.  Yesterday, I spent the day doing work for my graduate courses and looking at the pages of Artful Blogging was my treat for sustained work.  Today, my treat will be to begin to read the articles from the bloggers.

I am working on a Masters in Writing from Rowan University in NJ.  I was neglecting the writing side of my creativity and this program tied into my professional life as a curriculum supervisor for Language Arts and Reading as well as my creative side with the ability to explore creative non-fiction, memoir, and more journalistic writing such as feature writing.  I will complete this program next year and I have no regrets about having spent this enormous amount of money on a personal whim.  Unfortunately, what has suffered has been my other creative outlets.

I paint in Chinese watercolor techniques.  It has been months since I have ground ink to paint.  I work with paper and create cards with rubber stamps and all of the extras, but my main focus is the use of paper.  I worked on cards in December because I had received some gifts and wanted to give personally created thank-you cards and I knew of some upcoming birthdays and events that needed cards.  I also made a set of cards as a gift for a friend.  So, I created for a very practical purpose and that window of opportunity closed, the semester began and this avenue of creativity ceased.  My husband and I have been working with photography and I would love to explore it further.  Right now, it’s just on my list of things to do when I finish grad school.  Then there is my love of fabric and the needle arts . . .

But, my list can’t wait until I finish grad school.  The inspiration that I am getting from reading Artful Blogging  and the blogs of others such as Inspiraculum make me want to create now.  My task or my test is to find a way to incorporate all of my creativity into one project.   Or to at least incorporate multiple genres into my projects.  

How do others who work full-time and have full lives find time for their art?  I would love to hear from others and how you manage this.

When I was in grad school the first time, there was a semester when my money was not right and I had to take a semester off.  I was used to going to class one night a week and had established a routine with a babysitter and my children for that night. 

Today’s Burlington County Times has an article on the proposed closings of nine state parks which I have written about in previous posts on April 4th, April 5th, and April 9th.  In this installment of the saga, corporate sponsorship is being considered as a way to keep the parks open.  The Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa Jackson said that alternatives are  being considered but that “amping and swimming — the most expensive services — might not be retained.”  She also stated that “new or increased park fees and sharing services with local governments and nonprofit groups that support parks were among other options to keep parks open.”

Again, New Jersey needs to listen to other states.  The state of Washington considered corporate sponsorship in 2006, according to the article, “to find new money for repairs and construction.”  This matter never reached the point of being voted upon.  The folks in the state of Washington decided not to commercialize their parks. In fact, Washington’s Centennial 2013 plan looks like a way for citizens to become involved on an intimate level in maintaining, improving and expanding their parks.  The State of Washington seems to have a culture in which the parks are valued as a treasure of the people and for the people.

Hopefully, the good people of New Jersey will see that our parks are a sacred trust for ourselves, our children and grandchildren and will keep them open.  July 1st would be the date of closing for the designated parks — only 64 days away.  The saga continues . . .

For my graduate course, Writing for Electronic Communities, I had to read Color Monitors:The Black Face of Technology in America by Martin Kevorkian (Cornell University Press, 2002).  After I read the first page, I made sure to make no marks in the book because I want the maximum amount of credit from Powells when I sell it back.

Kevorkian sees the black man behind the computer screen in movies as a negative image.  Kevorkian states:

          My research has uncovered a peculiar pattern:  race comes into sharp relief when computer use is depicted as difficult labor requiring special experrtise.  Time and again, in such scenarios, the helpful person of color is there to take the call — to provide technical support, to deal with the machines.  In interpreting such images, Color Monitors analyzes the computer-fearing strain in American whiteness, an aspect of white identity that defines itself against information technology and the racial other imagined to love it and excel at it.  The computer expert most disproportionately projected by this cyberphobic whiteness is the black male.  I argue that fears about the dehumanizing, disembodying effects of information technology and fears of the black male body work as mutually reinforcing impulses behind popular depictions of black males as computer experts.  In this equation, cyberphobic whiteness — fearing technology’s capacity to disembody humanity, to take bodies out of the circuit of action — unconsciously projects technology onto the one set of bodies that it most fears.  The iomage of the obliging black man behind the monitor reassures viewers that the displayed body is safely occupied, both contained by and containing the threat of the computer.  (2)

Kevorkian then goes on to examine roles in multiple movies, such as Die Hard and The Matrix.

      The piece that is immediately missing for me is about the other roles in the movies.  What are the other roles in the movies played by black men?  Kevorkian uses Independence Day and talks about the black man who helps Jeff Goldblum (David) come up with an answer to how to stop the impending alien invasion.  What about Will Smith (Steve) who saves the day?  Will Smith is one of the action heroes along with Bill Pullman (the President) and Jeff Goldblum?

     I came of age during the early 70’s.  Black males in films were at first non-existent, then they were Superfly and Shaft.  What I see now is more of a balance in the character roles — the hero, the computer nerd, the villain.  I see educated black males because the computer techs did not get their positions because they looked good.  they had to know something to get thier jobs.  So the image I see is one that has the black male as part of the legitimate working world as opposed to a drug dealer or gang banger or the like.

Kevorkian talks about the tech person as a computer geek, computer nerd, or a child/adolescent.  He equates the black male with these uninfluential, unintimidating, uncommanding, unauthoritative people.  The view of the black man behind the computer screen is a step up froma black man as field worker or uneducated or troublemaker or lawbreaker.  The tech person has access to information, no matter to whom he gives it.  The tech person is a problem-solver, someone others have to rely upon to solve problems that make it possible for others to work. 

And, of course, I wonder why Kevorkian only looked at the roles of black males and did not also look at black women, but that is a question for another day.

    I could not read this book in its entirety.  What was I supposed to get from it?  I wonder, as I often do, why my professor included this book in Writing for Electronic Communities.  Am I (the sole black person in this class) supposed to question my relationship with the computer?  However, I’m a woman so Kevorkian wasn’t talking to me.  But I am a mother of three sons.  Should I worry that my sons will be viewed as safe, non-threatening men by the white world if they take computer jobs or should I encourage them to make use of every means at their disposal, especially the computer, to gain access to the larger world and all of its available information?  The bottomlinefor me is do I want my sons to worry about what the white world thinks of them or do I teach them to shirk that burden of having the outside world watching them (teach them paranoia?) and to strive for excellence in any and every field of endeavor?   

Finally, I wonder at Kevorkian’s actual stance on this issue.  In his acknowledgements at the beginning of the book, he thanks his computer.  Is Kevorkian only concerned with public portrayals as shown in the movies and private roles are something different?  Isn’t that hypocritical?

I believe that if you look hard enough for a problem, you will find it.  And you can manipulate data, like statistics, to prove both sides of the same issue or prove anything you want. 

In a comment to a previous post, Artful blogging:  visually inspiring online journals, Melinda asked where did I think blogging was going.  I think Melinda has answered it herself.  In her blog, Inspiraculum, she has two recent postings that have really caught my eye.  In one, Eloquent River, Melinda shows her process of creating a mixed-media fiber art piece that includes painting, poetry, and quilting.  In the second one, Last Snowfall, Melinda has a video that includes the image, a haiku, and a soundtrack that is the sound of the river in the video.  It is beautiful!  To me, this is the best of blogging in the art forum or any forum.  It is the sharing of the process and the end-product, it is the exploration of ideas and the final written piece.  It is creation and it is publication.  I love it!

Another passion of mine is women’s basketball.  I spent my time in front of the tv watching the NCAA Women’s playoffs, taping those games that I was not able to watch, loving every minute of it.  That then is followed by my time spent watching WNBA games. both on tv and going to Madison Square Gardens to see the New York Liberty.  Now, I will be going to Washington, D.C. (about 2 1/2 hours south) when my schedule allows to see Crystal Langhorne (who is a hometown girl!!) and the Washington Mystics.  I knew Crystal’s brother who played basketball with my youngest son.  Her brother was good but had an injury in his senior (I think) year.  I knew of his younger sister who was even more talented than her brother.  I have followed Crystal’s career with the University of Maryland (another connection — alma mater of one of my sisters and a cousin) and was almost in tears when I saw that she had been picked #6 in the first round of the draft!!!   It is inspirational to the students at Willingboro High School to see one of their own do so well. Congratulations to the Langhornes! 

In Saturday April 5th’s issue of the Burlington County Times, there was an article in which Asseblyman John Wisniewski (D, Middlesex County) suggests that privatization of the operation of the state parks that are scheduled to be closed might be a way to keep these parks open to the public.  I am always leary of privatization of publicly operated institutions.  There is always the element of profit-making by the private company and, of course, that is at the expense of the public.  Then, there is the element of quality; somehow the quality is never as good as when the operation was publicly owned. 

If the parks were taken over by such organizations as the Sierra Club, or the Audobon Society, or some other group that has a vested, stated interest in the parks and the environments that they protect, then perhaps the privatization could be quite beneficial.  But, usually these types of organizations do not have the means or resources to be able to take over the state parks.

In my perfect world, parks and recreation are at the top of a government’s list of vital items for funding, along with education, health and human services, and all of the other services that truly benefit the well-being of the people.  Parks are integral for my personal physical, emotional, and spiritual health as I can exercise my body, dispel my stress, and renew my connection to the natural and sublime.

Over breakfast this morning, I was perusing the latest issue of Motorhome Magazine.  US Department of Interior Secretary Drik Kempthorne was interviewed. He discusses the direction of the Department of Interior which includes the National Parks Service and the Bureau of Land Management and many others.  (The National Parks Service is my area of interest. )  In 2016, the National Parks Service will be 100 years old and there are major plans underway for this event. 

The connection to NJ Governor Corzine is what Secretary Kempthorne did as governor of Idaho and some of the things in the article that talk about the future for our children.  This resonates with my post yesterday, The Garden State about to Lose Its Greens.  Then Governor Kempthorne worked to revitalize Idaho’s state parks, particularly Ponderosa State Park.  Kempthorne talks about how he took all interests into consideration when making the changes.  He also mentioned a study that says that today’s children will not live as long as their parents because of their lack of activity, notably not enough time spent outdoors.  If Governor Corzine closes the NJ State Parks that he has targeted, he will be contributing to this decline in our children and grandchildren because, though many may choose to spend less time outdoors, those who want to will have less resources to do so. 

Am I exaggerating this point a bit?  Probably.  I am just trying desperately to make sense of my Governor’s decision-making process.