Distance No Object

This week’s activity has seen a marked  increased interconnectivity of postings, comments and a theoretical framework (Deleuze & Guattari)  for the interaction on Pinterest.

I decided, rather than offering a detailed narrative, to produce a diagram, to illustrate the nodes of activity.

A number of visual metaphors emerged: Pinterest as a ‘digital loom’, the discussion forum similar to ‘grass hopping’.

in addition, Love Sick, a story developing entirely as a result of an internet flaneur is still in production.

An attempt at making a comic strip was discontinued due to the time consuming aspect of the application.

A final pin was posted on the MOOC board, drawing the activity to a close.

This has been a very busy week, trying to post comments, following threads, building up a visual log of activity.

Here I hope to give a snapshot of most recent activity, offering me a time to reflect and synthesize:

• Amy posted a comment touching on  ’the fear of technology’, yet technology and humans are very much intertwined.
• Candace illustrated that smell may well be on its way to bringing a new sensory experience into the digital realm.
• Chantelle offered a great example of how art can make visual, with the artist Sol Le Witt offering a framework for her digital artefact
• Annabel is currently away from digital technology, due to stay in Kenya. This is a stark illustration of the digital ocean, with continents not necessarily within reach
• Phil’s artefact is both a very private and public statement, a visual and aural response to MOOCs and a theoretical introspection, more, I would like to suggest, a digital ‘installation’ to illustrate the perception of ‘space’
• Steph illustrated how digital boundaries are overcome, or blocked, with wifi networks locked/unlocked, the naming of some giving an interesting identity to their locations
• Nikki’s Glogster artefact gave me the inspiration to sign up and use this platform to continue with my love sick story…

Voila, my very human aggregation! … with the help of the ‘recent post and comment’ facility in WordPress…

(I thought I could read it out and record it but due to lack of time, I have to give this a miss…)

I have made a final pin (and updated the anchor image) on my board explaining the activity would no longer be monitored (thanks to Jen for the advice on this). Having been set up for a particular purpose which had now more or less expired, I felt I could no longer give the board my  full attention.

As I was surveying all the comments made, it struck me that due to the board’s layout of having the first pins appearing at the bottom of the screen, and the newest ones appearing at the top of the screen, the image that was most appropriate for this activity is that of a loom.

Indeed, I feel Pinterest can be compared to a digital loom with patterns appearing, spread around the selected photos, reflecting the discussions and interactions.

I think this is a metaphor that works very well, reflecting the smooth/striated analogy that Sian Bayne’s refers to in her paper, when discussing Deleuze & Guattari:

The technological model Deleuze & Guattari provide as illustrative of these two types of space is one of textiles. Here, woven fabric is necessarily a striated space, with its gridlike form consisting of intersecting warp and weft. It is a space of closure: ‘the fabric can be infinite in length but not in width, which is determined by the frame of the warp; the necessity of a back and forth motion implies a closed space’ (p. 475).

I think this is such a beautiful metaphor, it totally appeals to my imagination!

With regards to Pinterest itself: although it is a creatively engaging platform, getting any analytics from it, is actually not that easy. Pins are listed individually and monitored against re-pins and likes. To get figures for the MOOC board, I know there are 71 followers and 24 pins. But for the comments for  each, I need to do a visual check, i.e. no graphs nor anything like getting the statistics. Perhaps the business model let’s you sign up for this…. (?)  It is something I would need to check in the FAQ (I had a quick look but like anything in this area takes hours to unravel…another nice fabric metaphor!)

So, taking final stock, here are my analytics (as per 16/2/2013):

Top for comments the pin on ‘sustainable learning’: 2 likes, 19 comments and 2 re-pins:

Top for re-pinned and likes:  the pin on Feedback with 6 likes, 9 comments, 5 re-pins

The pin on ‘why posts (on the discussion board) get rated’  interestingly receives 6 comments, but no likes, nor re-pins itself.

Finally, pins that have received no comments, nor repins at all:

I was quite surprised for the grasshopper metaphor: I thought that was such a visually engaging pin, yet nobody  seemed taken by it….

This has been an exciting activity, useful for evaluating an online platform which is both visually stimulating and participatory.

I believe it can be a great tool for classroom and MOOC engagement, but one must consider that, not surprisingly, the element of ‘feedback’ (itself a discussed pin) is a highly demanding activity and part of the opinion that supporting dialogue is such an important aspect of learning.

In one of my previous posts, I questioned the position of the ‘author’ in the context of academic discourse, extended to the visual authorship in case of images.

On checking the FAQ page of Pinterest, below is their policy, and having signed up for this through usage, would of course cover all material:  user content would include images and comments, both mine and the MOOC participants.

A sobering thought…. where lies intellectual property?

b. How Pinterest and other users can use your content

You grant Pinterest and its users a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable, worldwide license to use, store, display, reproduce, re-pin, modify, create derivative works, perform, and distribute your User Content on Pinterest solely for the purposes of operating, developing, providing, and using the Pinterest Products. Nothing in these Terms shall restrict other legal rights Pinterest may have to User Content, for example under other licenses. We reserve the right to remove or modify User Content for any reason, including User Content that we believe violates these Terms or our policies.

c. How long we keep your content

Following termination or deactivation of your account, or if you remove any User Content from Pinterest, we may retain your User Content for a commercially reasonable period of time for backup, archival, or audit purposes. Furthermore, Pinterest and its users may retain and continue to use, store, display, reproduce, re-pin, modify, create derivative works, perform, and distribute any of your User Content that other users have stored or shared through Pinterest.

‘technology enabling technology’

In a previous posting I reported that Google Earth did not display the graffiti on the wall. Above I indicate precisely where it should be.

Jen’s suggestion of fixing may be saved for a rainy day…..

Experimenting with thinglink was easy and enjoyable. Thanks to all for showing me they way!

http://www.thinglink.com/scene/359077660292284418

I am finding it increasingly difficult to keep track of what I have been discussing and writing on the various platforms.

Over these past few days, there seems an exponential growth of comments. One of the buzzwords in my head is aggregation. In order to be efficient, I need to be using my tags better…

I realise I should check:

• Pinterest board
• WordPress main page
• WordPress course participant pages
• Tweetdeck
• The week 4 MOOC overview page and all its spin offs
• the EDEDC MOOC and the discussion forum

My coffee breaks, lunch and evening are increasingly spent checking status and adding comments.

I check my mobile phone for incoming messages about various accounts but know that not all are notified through my mailbox.

I am looking for visual clues that can give a better understanding of how to interact on the course.

I check YouTube and my Flickr account

I have a story in my head that needs to be followed up.

I would like to try out all the other platforms I haven’t had a chance to look at yet: thinglink (signed up for an account), Glogster (not yet)…

Is this utopia or dystopia?

Am I (becoming) post human?

The act of liking on Facebook is now firmly embedded in our culture.

the statistics show:

• 2.5 billion content items shared
• 2.7 billion Likes
• 300 million photos uploaded
• 500+ terabyte data ingested

Although it is not always what it seems as far as the likes are concerned, the 300 million photos do not lie.

Uploading images is now a way of sharing our lives, not just via Facebook, but a vast array of social media. We invite our friends, we make public our digital uploads.

The act of aestheticising the daily life we live is becoming ubiquitous.

In my recent Pinboard activity, I noticed that on occasion pins get a ‘like’. Other platforms such as Facebook have pages with ‘likes’. Indeed, Pinboard activity is encouraged  to be liked on Facebook, distributing (augmenting?) the effect.

I am not a digital markteer, but having used Facebook for many years, I have a certain understanding  what ‘like’ means.

Yet looking at my Pinboard, I was not entirely sure, especially with regards to the MOOC activity, what the ‘like’ actually entails. Indeed do ‘likes’  across platform indicate the same meaning and associations?

Checking Pinterest FAQ it mentions that ‘Liking a pin adds the image to your profile’s Likes section; the image does not get added to one of your boards.  ’

But perhaps one could like a pin, because one likes the image (an immediate reaction, and very much my visual usage)… and thus why ‘like’ and  not ‘re-pinning’… ?   FAQ mentions ‘A repin maintains the source-link of the image no matter how many times it’s repinned.’…. a complex strategy seems involved.  A picture seems a thousand words. And all these pictures are tracked endlessly.

So here again we have the interchange of visuality, the de-coupling, de-territorialising, de-situating.  Images linked, become unlinked, relinked, re-sited, new narratives ensue.

I then discover that underneath all of this (of course) is the business model, a  commodifcation of our liking.

http://business.pinterest.com/         and this model, as an encouragement, as a way of remembering what we love…

What are the implications of re-pinning and switching between the MOOC forum and other platforms, such as Pinterest, but also all the other ones that have been used to build artefacts?

In the IDEL module, we were introduced via Sian Bayne’s article to the idea of smooth and striated places (referring to Deleuze and Guatarri)

It struck me that the MOOC activity of ‘grasshopping’ * between the various platforms (i.e. forum to Pinboard, to other blogs, to websites etc…), each digital territory folding into the other one,   reminding me of

… a local integration moving from part to part and constituting smooth space in an
infinite succession of linkages and changes in direction. It is an absolute that is
one with becoming itself, with process. It is the absolute of passage’ (Deleuze &
Guattari, 1988, p. 494). (quoted in Sian’s article)

The striated spaces, are however, also inherently part of this experience, with Pinboard constraining activity within a structured, engineered interface, that although giving the user some control, is very manufactured. However, the option to link to any images allows the user to de-territorialise, to make engaging collages and juxtapositions and extending the narrative and the audience.

In addition, this visual pinning is supported by personal commentary.

Sian mentions ‘Electracy’ (after Greg Ulmer) which is a new type of literacy, that takes the symbolic representation of knowledge into account. Where the Coursera forum is based on traditional writing, a platform such as Pinterest allows for this new means of expressiveness.

‘if literacy focused on universally  valid methodologies of knowledge, electracy focuses on the individual state of mind within which knowing takes place’ (quoting Ulmer, 2003).

The Pinterest Board is similar to Ulmer’s ‘mystory’:

‘The act of composing online to that of curating an  exhibition, in which largely ‘readymade’ or pre-existing elements are arranged
together through an intellectual act  which consists less in exposition or
argumentation than in the appropriate and meaningful use of linkage and collage.’

http://www.wwwords.co.uk/elea/content/pdfs/1/2/6_bayne_elea_1_2_web.pdf

(some more digging for this is required)

[* a term borrowed from one of the the pinboard comments]

The MOOC vs. Pinterest board has given me a new perspective, allowing me to raise more questions:

1. are the Pinterest images offering anchor points for discussion, giving a sense of direction to the topics covered?
2. does the Pinterest board build a community where interaction is more conducive?
3. does the Pinterest board operate independently from the Coursera discussion board?
4. how does the re-pinning affect my perception of intellectual ownership (question thanks to Candace’s prompt)
5. will the Pinterest board be maintained through the concept of re-pinning, ensuring digital remake.
6. how do re-pins on other boards continue the narrative?
7. Can the Pinterest board be seen as an incorporated element of the coursera course, and any of the other newly created platforms that have sprung up since the start of the course?

On the MOOC Dutch group, this tool was suggested and so I tried it out. It’s great fun, but time consuming….

http://bitstrips.com/r/5D871

in my reflection on the MOOC, I questioned the position of the ‘author’ in the context of academic discourse, extended to the visual authorship in case of images.

Commenting on Steph’s post regarding the Scottish Clan, I quoted Roland Barthes, whose article THE DEATH OF THE AUTHOR  offers an interesting perspective.

‘We know that a text does not consist of a line of words, releasing a single “theological” meaning (the “message” of the Author-God), but is a space of many dimensions, in which are wedded and contested various kinds of writing, no one of which is original: the text is a tissue of citations, resulting from the thousand sources of culture’

The diffuse nature of the internet offers a challenge and opportunities for authenticity and originality.

For the Pinterest board I did not feel particularly strongly  associated with the contents, both visual and textual. However, some good metaphors appeared. For instance the metaphor of digital agora or the idea of grasshopping are very strong ones. If I were to use this metaphor in any further writing, how could I refer to it? How would I refer to the original forum entry?

Could I use the Pinboard reference? Is this academically stable? is this of a scholarly content? Does it matter?

(to follow)

This Sunday morning I have spent a couple of hours looking at the many comments made on my Pinterest board that keep floating in: my mailbox is being  filled with e-mails about re-pinning, liking, new followers and adding comments. This has been overwhelming, a fantastic spin-off for my MOOC activity this week. I now feel some responsibility towards this activity, offering some comments to comments made… no doubt adding further expansion to discussion and connectivity.

The week so far of ‘May the MOOC be with you‘…..

I decided to follow a single topic of postings in the Coursera discussion forum which was a reflection on ‘Education of the very best sort – reflecting the nature of the MOOC’

I used Pinterest as I had already started a board for this module and it seemed to make sense to develop a portfolio of activities. But rather than just pinning, I decided to turn it into a diary for the week, building up the pins as the discussion progresses and offering a reflection of the many opinions aired on the topic of MOOCs.

I deliberately amended my technique for using Pinterest in that I pinned the source image (still keeping a reference to the url, for copyright purposes) and images were selected on the basis of their visual power to illustrate the MOOC comments.  This, I guess, is outwith the Pinterest Board’s purpose, but I thought I would try this as an experiment.

Although the Pinboard is highly visual, getting an overview of the various comments made for a whole week is not straightforward. It is clear that checking this activity may be time consuming, and although some of the comments made are positive in using this platform in such an idiosyncratic way, if indeed comments from hundreds of MOOCers float in, it would make the board utterly unmanageable.

Another side-effect of this activity is the aggregation of my online actions: having the Pinboard linked to my google mail account, I receive constant updating. Having this fed into my mobile phone, means that even when I am walking around during the day, away from the desktop, I am interacting, engaging with this platform, illustrating the pervasiveness of such activity.

What is clear is that this activity is highly participatory, which may offer an insight into opinions (bearing in mind the highly pre-selected stance though).  For instance, not all pins received a comment. Indeed, one pin which is close to my (Flemish) heart is relating to the use of the English language:

Comment made on Thursday: ‘I can share information with other teachers who are not bilingual, and still learn about what is going on. I also share with the ones who are fluent in english and they benefit with all the new tools that I have found so far’ (from the post by Irma Guzman Calderón); the power of the MOOC is passing on knowledge to those who may not have access, in a language other than English.’ This pin so far has not received any comments, although it did get 3 likes, and 3 re-pins

And a pin made on Wednesday so far has been totally ignored:

Wednesday: Use MOOCs to teach calculus might greatly improve pass rate (from Michael Colucci post)

Could it be that the MOOC students for this course or less science focused?

Overall, the pinterest board discussions illustrate the multimodality and the various directions one can take, purposefully responding to comments, but also as part of a flaneur e-drift. The liking, re-pinning may give the impression of a casual activity. However,  research into the underlying facts and figures would be required to support any further observations.

My own observation in the context of discourse regarding MOOCs is on the subject of authorship. Where does the intellectual property reside when new ideas are emerging? How can one offer references to materials discussed, to the original concepts, the scholarly aspect of this activity. If we are to develop new online platforms for such academic activity, how to we deal with these diffuse spaces?

Finally… I was quite impressed by all of us on the course going for different platforms and this has extended my understanding of the visuality one can develop in presenting a discourse on the topic of the module. I have decided to experiment with all the platforms to prepare for further coursework.

https://pinterest.com/giraf87/edinburgh-digital-cultures-mooc/

This is day 3 following the forum, Looking to the Future

“Education of the very best sort” – reflecting on the nature of the MOOC”

I am amazed at how much writing is going on.

Having in these past few weeks discussed (and in MOOC standards  exclusively) the concept of multimodality and transliteracy, with a focus on visuality, this MOOC forum  and all the other ones of course is all about writing, and so much of it….

What is clear to me is that there is a diverse  mix of participants: some watching (no doubt, just like me), some dipping in, some having an academic input,others offering a very personal comment. Many are professionals, many non-native English speaking…

The avatars are surprisingly small, some graphic, some missing, some anonymous, some showcasing (marketing) their professional interests. Clicking on the tumbnails gives more info. This eclectic mix of MOOC students will no doubt have an effect on the purpose and format of this learning environment.

The forum keeps on displaying posts, democratically, inclusively, unequivocally… The writings keep pouring out, longs strands, short strands, some with urls.

it sort of reminds me of a pasta machine…. weird

MOOC= no longer the reign of the bullet point (Powerpoint) but the reign of the post (listening to Sian Bayn in the Google hangout who is referring to Cousin 2005, 15.05 mins into video…)

For this week, partly in response to the Kress article and ‘the landscape of communication’,  I decided on extending my  experiment which takes the features of internet communication and connectivenss as a starting point. How can an image turn into a story, and let the open sourcing and tagging appropriate an artefact (i.e. graffiti on an art college wall) and turn it  into a digital object which is digitally absorbed, let loose into a visual internet culture?

Similar to my thinking, the visual and textual are inter-looped, with the occasional rupture of communication setting off stray activity.

It was reassuring to read Gillian Rose’s chapter again of visual analysis (still to tackle the word with capital S: Semiotics) and the article on transliteracy, which is a very obvious concept for an activity we all seem to engage with:

Transliteracy is the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks. –  www.transliteracy.com

I had a first look at the MOOC, a somehow daunting prospect for next week’s task. It made me realise that the perceived close knit group on this module, is now extended to thousands of potential discussants.

 I thought I would continue with my story, if you remember, the  graffiti image of a heart.

In a previous comment, I let the story end (Page not Found). I felt this was a symbolic move, poetic almost reflecting the emotional tension in the artefact.

Today I was considering a link to another website, until I received an alert via my mailbox to inform me that my photo has now taken it’s own internet course, through Pinterest.

You can check the link here.

In my continuous attempt to link the image to a narrative, emerging from its online presence, I looked for further evidence, through Google maps and noticed, not surprisingly, that love sick is absent from the Google wall.

Internet spaces and real life spaces are in a continuous flux

(to be continued)

A wonderfully elegant definition of visuality by Hal Foster (1988) , referring to the way in which vision is constructed in various ways: how we see, how we are enabled, allowed or made to see, and how we see the seeing, and the unseeing therein.

Gillian’s chapter, which I was fortunately to have read before, and a diagram I produced that I thought helpful for some of the tasks ahead.

Anyone reading online has experienced the ‘Page not found’ moment.

It is accompanied by a computer message revealing the number  404 … is this the internet’s doomed number…?

It is a curious event both for the ‘visitor’ and the ‘visited’…. in this timeless and digitally spacious medium, we are confronted with a closed door policy, a change of mind, an out of date, a rupture in communications.

High expectations are abruptly stopped, sales lost, ideas re-routed…

All of a sudden, we enter the world of databases, tags gone wrong, categories lost, protocol AWOL…

Administrators are notified.

A narrative that drifted.

by Mike Wesch, see the reference in the Transliteracy article by Sue Thomas et al.

the video claims to be the final version… can there ever be a final version?