Poet Ponders the Digital

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley March 28, 2011 Deadline May 2011 Issue A Web of Tech Problems: Finding Answers Online Computer hardware and software once came with stacks of manuals. I remember the massive slipcases containing manuals for DOS, WordPerfect and my programming tools. The original CorelDRAW manuals were in the most impressive box on my desk. In addition to the manuals that accompanied products, the early 1980s were a glorious time for computer-related magazines. Once a year, most of the major publications would publish indices of that year’s issues. I learned that with patience and a good index I could locate the answer to almost any tech question in either a book or magazine. Today, finding answers is no longer so simple. I cannot recall the last application I purchased that included a full-length printed manual. Most software titles I now purchase are downloaded from the Internet and the only manuals are the online help systems. The quality of the online hel...

Selected Bibliography Some texts either specifically or indirectly on the history of education and education theory (pedagogy) that have influenced me. The list is exported from my Bookends database, so there might be some formatting errors. I am trying to clean up my database, but I have several thousand books in the system (and on my shelves). Beniger, James. The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986. Berlin, James A. Rhetorics, Poetics, and Cultures : Refiguring College English Studies . Lauer Series in Rhetoric and Composition. West Lafayette, Ind.: Parlor Press, 2003. Corbett, Edward P. J., Nancy Myers, and Gary Tate. The Writing Teacher's Sourcebook . 4th ed., New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. 0195123778 (alk. paper) Cuban, Larry. The Blackboard and the Bottom Line : Why Schools Can't Be Businesses . Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004. ---. How Scholars T...

In college, I wrote software documentation for mainframe users, which meant I had the opportunity to use text editors and word processors on a variety of computer platforms. I composed documentation on everything from glorified typewriters (DEC VT102 and IBM 3270 terminals) to slick WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") Apple Macs. I was probably not alone in being captivated by the Mac experience. Toss in PageMaker, a few fonts, and a LaserWriter for a complete desktop publishing system, and the Mac was hard to beat. Yet, I quickly realized that I wrote better on my MS-DOS 2.1 PC running WordPerfect 4.2 from floppy disks. How could this be? The Mac was easier to use and the papers I typed looked much better on paper. Why did I type so much more, and much better, on the PC? I didn't work on the Mac; I explored. I'd play with fonts, formatting options, and the nifty features of Word or PageMaker. I'd also play Crystal Quest, Lode Runner, and Dark Castle for ...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley February 2010 Issue December 29, 2009 Words on a Screen: E-Books are the Future Amazon’s Kindle is now the best-selling product the Web retailer has ever stocked. No single book, CD, or DVD comes close. Barnes & Noble ran out of the Nook before Christmas. Sony cannot ship the Sony Reader (despite the lack of an original name), fast enough for stores like Target and Best Buy. The e-book has arrived, with e-readers selling faster than even their greatest supporters imagined. Considering how mediocre the technology is, the demand proves that as e-readers improve the demand will grow exponentially. The list of current deficits should be hurting the e-reader market, but it isn’t. • The screens are limited to black and white because the “digital ink” display technology doesn’t support color (yet). • Amazon, like Apple, attempts to limit purchased downloads to their hardware platform. • Popular digital books cost as much as printed books, de...

This is a portion of my summer (re)reading list, at least on one particular subject matter. I am reading various books on type and design. So far, I have completed Dodd and Lupton. The Bringhurst and Parker texts are re-reads, which I will tackle later in the summer. The current book on my stand is the Stanley Morison Tally of Types . I'm putting the bibliography up top, to stress the books a bit more than my own ramblings. Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style . 3rd ed ed. Point Roberts, WA: Hartley & Marks, Publishers, 2004. Consuegra, David. American Type: Design & Designers . New York: Allworth Press, 2004. Dodd, Robin. From Gutenberg to Open Type: An Illustrated History of Type From the Earliest Letterforms to the Latest Digital Fonts . Vancouver, WA: Hartley & Marks Publishers, 2006. Lupton, Ellen. Thinking With Type : A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students . Vol. Design briefs. 1st ed ed. New York: Prince...

Selected Bibliography My views on the implementation of online writing curricula are also informed by the following texts and articles: Anson, Chris M. "Distant Voices: Teaching and Writing in a Culture of Technology." College English 61.3 (1999): 261-80. Applebome, Peter. "The on-Line Revolution Is Not the End of Civilization as We Know It. But Almost." New York Times 4 April 1999 1999, sec. Education Supplement: 26-28, 35-37. Armstrong, Alison, and Charles Casement. The Child and the Machine : How Computers Put Our Children's Education at Risk . Updated ed. Carlton North, Vic.: Scribe Publications, 2001. Beniger, James. The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986. Berlin, James A. Rhetorics, Poetics, and Cultures : Refiguring College English Studies . Lauer Series in Rhetoric and Composition. West Lafayette, Ind.: Parlor Press, 2003. Callister, Nicholas C. Burbul...