Dana Boyd is the lead author on a final report (see link above) about teenage girls’ social digital literacy practices. She and her team (includes Ito!) found that FaceBook and MySpace are rapidly taking over other media as a prime way for teenage girls to get and keep friends. In Canada, the minimum age for joining both of those social networking sites is 16 years;yet, it seems like most of the elementary students I know have such a space. Blogs have been used, until now, for sharing personal information with select groups of friends, so it will be interesting to see if blog numbers decrease for teenage girls over the next few years.
Dana has publications available online when you Google her name. She wrote an excellent article about redefining blogs, and it is available.
The link that I have placed above and that is now on my blog roll is important for anyone who studies in the area of digital literacies. The portal is a collection of expert bloggers and scholars who report the preliminary findings from their studies as they are engaged in research.
I have just read an article, “Blogging as Social Activity,or, Would you let 900 Million People Read Your Diary?” by three scholars at Stanford. They reported that their participants reported that they blogged to give advice, to seek feedback, and to “think by writing” about school and work tasks more often than to journal about personal stuff. I found that my blog has basically stayed the same (about my picture book or writing), but when I review other entries, I was “giving advice,” and “thinking by writing” in preparation to enage in off-line work on the picture book.
My friend, James, who is an illustrator and cartoonist agreed to undertake a new collaborative writing project. You can observe it as it evolves. Please post comments and suggestions. The goal is to develop a character named, “Blogger,” who will become a visual representation (drawn by James) about what we are learning about blogging and story writing.
Okay, James, I will use words to paint my view of Blogger as she/he exists today. Blogger is a very busy academic with many roles and responsibilities. One ongoing role is to keep up with New Literacies, ways of making meaning in on line contexts. Blogger needs many tools (computer, computer desk, a good light, coffee, and a blog page). Not only does Blogger need to be a character, he/she needs an avatar. I look forward to the image that you create. Once you upload, I will review some things that Blogger has learned about blogging and you can keep adding pictures.
We look forward to your suggestions fro what to add, change, take away from our character sketch.
I am compelled to share how I have saved 3000+ airmiles in one month, because it is enough to pay for my trip to Montreal in May!
1. I traded by HBC Reward points for airmiles. I went to www.points.com to make that trade. You can also do that through the HBC Rewards site (Google it).
2. I purchase my groceries at Safeway on the first Tuesday of every month and ask for 10X the airmiles instead of 10% off. Last time, I earned over 1000 points by purchasing airmiles items that totalled 100 points.
3. I order all of my books through the online Airmiles store as well as my clothes…Victoria Secret has great sweaters, suits, shoes, etc.
Those are my tips for the week. oh, yes, one more, always pick up the flyer for extra airmiles near the front door of any Safeway (If you spend $100.00, you get 100 bonus points,etc.)
I will post about my book, too, but this is too good to keep to myself.
Make sure that you visit this link to Lynda Barry’s talk about creativity and her relatively recent book, “What It Is.” This book is based upon the images that she collects that inspire her thoughts and upon the “deep play” that she uses as a metaphor to talk about how she subconsciously writes her autobiographical comic strip.
I am inspired by her work and her discussions about her work. See what you think. There is also a link to this pod cast and to video on my blog roll.
