Chapter 2 CMC in PR, by Wright & Webb

Jeffrey Child’s chapter deals with the myriad of issues dealing with privacy management.  The initial example is if a pluralistic entity such as a family owns content and decides to make it public on the internet, does the individual depicted in the content have the right to restrict access or all together remove it? Childs references Boyd and Ellison’s criteria of a SNS; constructing of a profile that can be restricted, inclusion of desired audience, and viewership of desired audience of content or material. Adolescents  demonstrate more privacy than older adults. Yet adults learn from adolescent the procedures for maintaining privacy in SNS. Child’s delineates several outlines of communication privacy management that helps us understand effective management practices rules, disclosure, and context.  Some excerpts dealing with  privacy management include, people equate privacy information with personal ownership, thus it is a commodity of access to privilege. Boundaries of permeability, ownership, practices, disclosure, and contexts all are important facets of SNS.

My thoughts

Young adults demonstrate more privacy than older adults which may correspond with Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development; Fidelity, identity versus role confusion.  Adolescents are concerned how they appear to others. Could the privacy issues and allowance of personal information these individuals allow and restrict be a corresponding moniker “identity confusion” that Erikson described?  He stated that young people “are confronted by the need to re-establish boundaries for themselves and do this in the face of an often potentially hostile world“ and commitments are being asked for before their own identities have formed.  

Also in this second chapter it was mentioned when young adults move away from family rules and practiced boundaries it is called “deindividualization”. Similarly Erikson described this process in similar fashion referred to as  Intimacy versus Isolation (young adults, 19 to 40), and specifically an interesting distinction called  “distantiation” the readiness to isolate and if needed, defend against encroachment in relationships if deemed unwanted.   

Current events

Privacy in the classroom over the years has become more stringent. This is due to the numerous litigations over the years about guardianship and visitations among divorced individuals. Our district does have a wordpress license so we are encouraged to create in their domain.  As an art teacher I cannot put names on students artwork if it is hung in the classroom or in the hallways. Moreover any artwork photographed and displayed on the school districts website can only have first name, no grade level, or class information. Rules about my having a blog independent of the school district is also frowned upon.  Most young students now understand these current trends in privacy and do not ask why names are not included as pertinent information. The artwork alone is now a signature of the individual from now on, only known to the individual if he or she declares ownership. 

Chapter 1 CMC in PR, by Wright & Webb

In the initial chapter entry by Bryant Marmo and Ramirez deals with interpersonal and relational functions in regards to CMC and SNS systems. People wish to initiate specialized interactions through the use friendships through social media.  The strength of friendships can vary in the initiation phase, weak social ties exist without great bonding to others in the communication exchange. Levels of uncertainty exist also, people want opinions in general short term priorities, and not just for long term ventures. If relationships with others are on a higher level, individuals facets include trust, liking, and commitment are more prevalent in this stage known as relational maintenence.  Social media serves as a way to display pertinent relational status; people can view succinct knowledge of others activities, thus, minimal contact is needed to maintain a friendship. Asynchronous communication is merely needed to check up on others. If a relationship is broken reconnection or needed for re-establishment, social media can help through the hierarchy of friendships already maintained by others in immediate social groups. Others wish to create alternate identities in social media. However this role playing venture has social norms like honesty, confidentiality, and integrity have to be adhered to if participants know your true identity, or if you are seeking long term commitment from people. Initial impressions people seek are very important in the establishing of oneself in the online community. Trying to influence how others perceive you, or gaining the knowledge that your individual self is the product of continual social engineering. Information seeking is another component of social media, people can instantly gain knowledge about others without solicitation. Through the acts of active, passive, interactive and extractive procedures, individuals can gather initial impressions about others. Finally meta communications provide a complex process of situational and contextualization that determine appropriate specific cues. Non aligning statuses, such as relationship indicators between users and or audience can create disharmony.

Being in the art classroom for the past decade I see many of the similar personality interactions that his chapter outlines.  A related art or humanity as it is commonly known brings out social dynamic other classes do not.

1. Proximity, students feel a sense of connectedness to each other in a social group and harmony. Sharing supplies and thus ensuring fruition of product.

2. Belonging. A sense of unity in the structure of the class is accepted gradually, with students sometimes taking the role of mini facilitators in class.

3. Challenging norms. Norms are challenged by individuals who wish to change their identity or behavior radically in opposition to agreed upon principles.  Any radical departure from appearance contrary to known self is not an instant cohesive reaction by others in a classroom. The group dynamic is upset by total departure of normalcy or having to get use to blatant unknown nuances.

4. Defiance. Ill-tempered radical behavior towards the teacher, can enact sympathy or anger from other students in the classroom.  Students can shun the individual in question with silence or more outwardly question the actions of the culprit.

5. Departure. If a student announces they are moving or relocating to another school a general sympathy starts followed by understanding of the finality of the decision. However in this new digital age of CMC and SNS, students now say, “hey……..I will see you on Facebook” 

A Faceted Classification Scheme for Computer-Mediated Discourse By S. Herring

I understand the need for classifying data for the new realm of computer mediated communications, the mystery of burgeoning technologies that have made it complex to classify the new internet savant language or avant garde.  It is imperative that we understand the human interactions that occur on the internet in terms of intrinsic motivations and extrinsic outcomes.

To me there are parallels to the change and mystery in our communication spectrum to a similar form of communication that are visual. Thus the creation and subsequent modification of art also had to go into declassification and recertification. Throughout the centuries art forms of communication were very succinct in message, skill and technique. By the mid nineteenth century art had lost it’s focus from being about medium of functionality and aesthetic, and took a radical turn.  Why? Intellectualism, humanism, entropy, psychology, efficacy, technology, pluralism, and many other self aware factors suddenly thrust themselves into the artist mind.  Art became a convoluted anxiety syndrome by the twentieth century, where optimism once demonstrated by artists such as DaVinci and Michaelangelo were mere echos of the past, artists now such as Picasso, Braque, Munch, Goya exuded extreme pessimism about the human condition and communicated their art in many forms.

I think we are we at the post modern or postmodernism moment in the communication apex. “Modern” forms of communication still exist in functionality such as landlines, radios, and analog televisions. These systems invented by Bell, Tesla, Edison, and Hertz were modified but not really replaced. But now with computers the internet has provided a whole new identity to communications thanks to the work of recent pioneers such as Turing, Babbage, Lovelace, Jobs, Wozniak, Allen, and Gates. Now billions of people worldwide who wish to express elements of self and expression notoriety are no different than what numerous artists sought a century ago.  They demonstrate joviality, doubt, hate, sadness, and belonging by means of many technological forms. Now many people who communicate have never shaken hands or would not recognize each other in person. The creation of internet groups or communities that share common interests or limit access to others have no physical earthly boundaries. Even the word friend will become redefined and in the way it is phrased.  

So how do we measure or classify this communication? Herring outlines the complexities of trying to identify terminology that may help in measuring outcomes in this sociometry. She utilizes some old theories as well as newer research on this topic. I think it will take many years to categorize our synchronous and asynchronous communication spectrum that exists in our world. Herring is a first step in building the foundation for researching this new dichotomy.

Words&Minds. Chapter 7 Conclusions

Mercer provides the disclaimer that interthinking is a valuable concept that is still not currently cohesive in scholarly research. Language is a constantly studied realm for researchers trying to pry into the primordial facets of the human condition.  However it cannot be disputed that language links intellect. Modes of communicating with each other in terms of cumulative, disputational, exploratory  offer participants to making creative contributions to the sense-making.

I really liked this book, it was well written and provided a good overview of the syntactic of language and conversation. Mercer is providing a great foundation about the facets of language and communications in regards to individual development and group dynamic. Communications are at a constant to be ever changing according to the influences of society, technology and computers are the latest additions to be understood. 

I plan to use many ideas from this book in my art classroom.   

Words&Minds. Chapter 6 Development though dialogue

Mercer proceeds in this chapter to outlining the basic human instinct or condition of children acquiring language from adults and peers.  Reactions help steer the learner toward associations of right or wrong, favorable or unfavorable reaction. Even hints of sarcasm can guide a child in constructing meanings or outcomes that have multiple connotations. Parents have to be cognizant that the meanings they want children to understand are being remembered, so constant new information is being built upon subsequent knowledge or schemas. Jerome Bruner added that adults create a scaffold a hierarchy of how to accomplish something in the shortest time possible. Children then construct their own interpretation on the meanings from lessons learned. Lessons about etiquette are important in teaching children, yet the lessons adults teach about how to do something efficient are always a core philosophy to task mastery. Children also learn in zones of proximity to each other, and the tasks provided to a group. Yet the common denominator is language, without it many interactions about self and identity would be inhibited.

I feel this is a very important chapter, that probably should have been chapter 2 or 3 in this book not towards the end. The lessons of Piaget cannot be underestimated. Jean Piaget describes the acquisition of language in the preoperational developmental stage. Children’s language is largely egocentric with monologs being practice sometimes autonomously. There is language but not much communication occurring but the child does not realize this until further mental growth occurs. Through natural processes language develops from ego to a public or socialized orientation.

Teachers and parents teach children how to be efficient, through guided practice and moderation.  Parents don’t tell children to number every puzzle piece before start of assembly. They want the child to create a frame of the puzzle, which in a sense is a framework of completing the task before frustration occurs.  Teachers also perform the same fundamental task in the classroom routine everyday. 

Words&Minds. Chapter 5 Persuasion Control and Argument.

Mercer delineates the micro and macro of communal social communication system. Origins of human interaction which once smaller communal clusters now is being extended to the vast spectrum. Communities now have joint intellectual activity outlined as history, collective identity, reciprocal obligations and discourse.  However there must be a shared understanding for the content involved to prolong the continuum of the group, and thus maintain cohesion. This can be a code of any subject matter from musicians to mechanics troubleshooting the best way to fix something.  Genre also must be understood in the context of communities where subject matter is treated accordingly. Virtual communities now are on the rise but still have an etiquette, even if their luster alone is attracting people towards short term interests. Moreover communal duties are transferred into the virtual world. This includes system or administrators of a forum allowing people to enter into the group on a probation period, moderating content, editing posts from members. CMC has implications to real time and humanism. Time can be irrelevant in CMC or have severe consequences in the interactions and relationships between people.

 Decided upon norms through the exchanges of communication are quick and full of jargon that users are accustomed to. Yet exclude if outsiders do not know the codes of communication.

I have no doubt that CMC is heading into education on all levels. However I have pondered the future of the art classroom. As an art classroom is a micro social system, it provides social and communal lessons for all students that other subject do not. Students do not continually compare math results, or an English paper because it deals with absolutes and right or wrong. Art is different in that there is no real wrong answer to a creative problem. There exists many ways to answer a common question. Societal norms are understood and continually updated in interactions with others, and forms of visual expression that demonstrate the users unique intent are autonomous. Yet Students learn off by compare and contrast through avenues of query and edit through peer interactions. Visual art has it’s own verbiage that was taught by the instructor, could it be understood if not shown the proper example online? If the artistic classroom was converted to a virtual community that was either synchronous or asynchronous, I think some of the social skill set that is honed would be lost. So it is up to unique educators in art education to figure out the right balance of instruction.

Words&Minds. Chapter 4 Persuasion Control and Argument.

Mercer outlines the apex of persuasive argument, which has had drastic political and cultural implication in the 20th century with broadcast media. Orators demonstrating charisma, moxie, dogged determination, and audience control sought to persuade groups into their line of thinking. A three-part list as Atkinson parlays in his own research were a common component of public speaking. A succinct logic of point followed by three subsequent points that provide cohesiveness to speeches. Compare and contrast in a speech also is an effective tool to provide solution or remedy for the audience to understand.  Vernacular to provide fruition is what political pundits continually seek in order to maintain control. Yet even as speakers to a smaller audience we exhibit the very same mannerisms towards others. We may use metaphors as common understood tenets to our persuasion or a way of explaining something more concisely.

As an art teacher, the use of persuasion is continual process that begins in the first days of class. Student are skeptical about what is expected of them in an art classroom environment. They doubt their abilities, or what type of creativity I am grading them on. It is more subjective than that I always tell them, it is always about effort and your own process to the solution.That is not to say they are not willing to explore subject matter presented to them. It is just the students need time to know what you are trying to explain to them, this usually is done with the end product. Then they say “......oh I understand” what you were talking about.