Mapping Digital Presence

As I promised I have a picture of my presentation created for my english composition class. Long hours went into the project. Here is a link to the power point I created to go with the tri-fold. If your not familiar with pwerpoint, just press F5 to view the slide show. Leave me a comment of your thoughts about the presentation. Enjoy!

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Presentation,mapping

Yeah! Class is over

Aaahhhh! The stress has been lifted. Yesterday was the last day of my English class. I now have time to relax a little before the next semester begins. I presented my presentation called Mapping my Digital Self. It went as well as could be expected. I will post pictures one I can get them downloaded. I’m so glad to be done with this class.

Although I won’t miss the work, I will miss the people. Even though most won’t admit it, we are better writers for being in Mary’s class. At first I wanted to drop the class because the idea of writing digitally scared me, but I found the courage to continue. I wish my classmates all the best on their finals. With class over I can start thinking about Christmas.

I have not done any of my shopping yet! As a stress reliever, I took the time to put up the tree to get me in the mood. The other day I found a funny post from busy mom about internal Christmas meter. What puts you in the Christmas mood? I feel more Christmas-y when it snows. With 7.8 inches of snow, I am in the mood now. I have even been playing Christmas songs.

Becoming a better writer

A question was raised the other day in class of whether I believe I have become a better writer. Using the many resources I learned from my english class, I am a better writer. I learned from Picturing Text that a picture can have a different meaning depending on what I choose to exclude from the writing, and the reader’s point of view. With the last project, I will not have enough time to inform my listeners of all the ways I have composed myself -I must choose what to exclude. I can also improve my writing by helping others with the edit process.

Mary gave the class tips for a final edit process. First, edit for the paper for meaning. Editing for meaning helps the organization process. The next step is to use the same process on each of the paragraphs. Another process of editing is reading the paper out loud. Reading out loud helps with clarity. I helped my daughter with a paragraph she was writing, and a thought came to mind of what I learned in class. I have room to improve, but I am starting to see myself as a better writer.

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English 106,better writer

Grrr!

Have you ever had something that bugs you enough to grit your teeth and say grrrr? If you have, I found a colum you might want to read. Mike Straka writes a colum called “Things that make you go Grrrr!” Check it out here and let me know what you think.

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fox news,fun articles

Online Presence

With project two done, I’m onto the next project. Project three is composing our self in the digital world. In the last class, we talked about all the places we write or are written into being online. Think about all the websites or people you have given your e-mail address. We made a list of places where we have an online presence. I thought of 15 right away- if you add the number of websites I visited for research or just for fun, the list would be over 50. Also most people have more than one e-mail address. I have three-work, home, and school. The idea of having such a major presence is hard for me to fathom.

Part of project three is mapping our digital presence. Using Cmap, which I mentioned in an earlier post, I created what I wanted the poster board to look like. Mary reminded the class we could come off the board. At first I was confused of what Mary meant by coming off the board. Now I understand and have devised a slightly different look to the poster board. If I remember to bring a digital camera to the presentation, I will post pictures of the presentation on my blog as a good ending to the class.


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digital self,projects

Top ten list put to use

My English class was given an assignment to take a paragraph written by another classmate and edit the paragraph using our top ten lists. My top ten list was posted in an earlier post. Below is the edited post.

Today in class, Mary spoke to us about writing and how writers choose the things they write. She made the comment, “High school writing is easy, because you write down what you already know. Writing at the university level is tough, because you have to choose what you write.” I could not agree with her more. It is so frustrating when you are writing a paper, and you realize that you cannot write everything you know about a certain topic. You realize you have to pick and choose what to write. Mary wrote a sentence on the board from Picturing Texts, “Seeing is learned.” I did not know what she meant by the phrase until she went over it with the class, and I realized then you must see what you write and what to eliminate. I came to the conclusion, deciding what not to write is sometimes more important than deciding what to write: you already know what you are going to write when deciding what not to write.

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top ten,homework

High cost of gasoline is big bucks for Exxon

Is your pockets empty from the high costs of gasoline? According to a Fox News article, Exxon Mobile’s pockets are overflowing. Exxon and other oil companies had record breaking profits in the third quarter of this year. Exxon alone had an increase 75% over profits from last quarter. I find the news infuriating! With the high fuel costs, businesses must raise prices just to break even. Has anyone noticed paying more for groceries? I am finding that what use to be a $50 grocery bill 6 months ago is now more like an $80 grocery bill for the same items. High fuel costs are hitting consumers twice as hard. Something needs to be done about the excessive profits.

Congress steps up to the plate for the American citizens to ask questions of the oil companies making the outrageous profits. But are they inquiring for the right reasons? Fox News writes another article about congress wanting to charge the oil companies a “punitive tax” on excessive oil profits. At first I thought this would be good-money from the tax would go to hurricane victims. After reading the rest of the article, it made sense not to tax the profits, because it would discourage investment into the discovery of new oil. Maybe Exxon should use the profits to upgrade their facilities in the gulf to better withstand hurricanes. Less downtime means supply could keep up with demand.

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gasoline,Fox News

Mapping my digital self

I enjoy learning new things each day. It is amazing the number of different maps which can be used to map someone digitally. Looking for an inspiration on our third project, we looked at An Atlas of Cyberspace. Our third project is a presentation of our digital selves in the 21st century. I had initially picked a map from the surf web, which is what I’m use to. But after taking a second look, another map caught my eye. The topology map reminds me of Cmap, which is another program we used today.

Once I figured out how Cmap worked, I could not stop. I can see why Mary likes Cmap so much. I found the program easy to use. Mapping my digital self has taken a turn for the better. The program is so versatile; I could use the program at work and at home. My daughter said she has used something similar to map a storyline at school. I could have used Cmap for the second project, but I am on the final stretch of completion.

Another website we looked at for our second project was the Library of Congress. I was impressed at the sheer magnitude of information available. Although I did not find much in the way of recent periodicals for my career choice, I will keep this site bookmarked for future use. The site impressed me with the fact several languages are combined and romanized for easier use. I was disappointed that I could not drill down to read some of the periodicals I found.


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mapping,project 3