deep into my new project
I’m just getting started on my aera paper and presentation, which I’m sure I should have been working since forever ago but hey, I’ve been busy. Yeah. So I’m working on some stuff off my dissertation taking from activity theory — the gist is this: when we use new technologies, we actually contribute to re-designing them. As in, the developers of the cell phone had no idea that text messaging would take on the power it has, or that profiles on Instant Messenger would be used in ways not unlike personal ads. In the case of my dissertation, this online multimedia environment was designed to crititque the Autobiography of Malcolm X but instead the students used it as a space to get to know Malcom better, so to speak — exploring ancillary materials like the complete FBI file, his speeches and television appearances, including the infamous broadcast of “The Hate that Hate Produced.” Instead of “reading” the site like a concordance, they wandered in it like a multimedia moviehouse and exhibition hall. I just have to explain why that’s important, and how these re-designs should be taken into account by teachers and researchers.
Sure.