Discourse Chronicle

[As a second-year PhD student in the Rhetoric and Writing Program at BGSU, my cohort is currently selecting committee chairs for our Prelim exams, which means we are beginning to develop potential dissertation topics. For many years, I imagined pursuing a dissertation arguing that modern comic book crossovers are remediated Greek myths reproduced in a multimodal format and understanding how that changes our literacy practices, but after six years and much deliberation with professors and soul-searching…I am leaving comics behind.

During my coursework as a first-year PhD student, I felt if I wanted to write a dissertation using comics, then I should distance myself from that subject as evidence that I am about more than Rhetoric, Composition, and Comics. Professors confirmed my feeling and I began pursuing papers addressing possibilities using video games and I received a much more positive response, but other signs also contributed to my decision:

• I received encouragement from Cynthia Selfe (a living legend rhetoric and composition professor) at last year’s CCCC conference about a paper I plan on submitting to Computers and Composition.
• Watson and CCCC (two major league conferences for rhetoric and composition scholars) accepted proposals from me about video games and composition.
• I cannot imagine new project possibilities for comics beyond the dissertation.
• I realized that I want my professional identity to be a teacher-scholar and not a scholar-teacher.
• Video games are far less personal than comics to me.

Another major reason I am happy and comfortable with leaving comics behind is my composition students. I always love teaching students about writing well and I constantly try incorporating their literacies into my pedagogy. As a younger self, I struggled with writing well, but I loved doing it and that love predates other interests I hold. Now I am pursuing arguments showing how students improve writing through gaming and reading comics becomes a favorite hobby again. BK]

category: Comics, Gaming, Life, Pedagogy, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

With pleasure, we invite you to participate in the 60th annual Convention of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, which will be held in San Francisco, March 11-14, 2009. We are following the CCCC policy of allowing only one speaking role in the peer-reviewed concurrent sessions in order to maximize the participation of the CCCC membership.

[I submitted a proposal about how playing video games such as Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin on the Nintendo DS will result in better composition students if we incorporate game elements into our lessons about writing. BK]

category: Gaming, Life, Pedagogy, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

Gee clearly situates video games within an overall theory of learning and literacy with genuine power to transform students and equip them to address complex problems. If passion communities could be formed to solve real-world problems like hunger and environmental degradation, Gee believes we would be much better equipped to face these issues head-on. The challenge, according to Gee, isn’t just about teaching our kids; it’s about ensuring they have a viable world to live in. –Michael Abbott

[From Elizabeth. BK]

category: Gaming, Pedagogy, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

Microsoft is finally admitting that those “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” ads have had some impact on Vista’s reputation and performance in the market. The software giant is planning to respond with a huge advertising campaign of its own — which will not involve admitting that Vista is a bad OS. –Naomi Grossman

[I am a Mac and PC user, but my leanings are now more toward Apple. I admit that I love Mac’s current campaign and my favorite commercials are 2008’s Pep Rally and 2007’s Boxer. BK]

category: Humor, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology, Television    

We are very pleased to accept your proposal for the 2008 Thomas R. Watson Conference. We were overwhelmed with the responses to this year’s topic–both in terms of the quantity of submissions and the quality of the work proposed. Clearly the topic resonates with the work we are now doing as composition teachers.

category: Acceptances, Life, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

Studies of the brain have pointed to data suggesting that repeated exposure to video games reinforces the ability to create mental maps, inductive discovery such as formulating hypotheses, and the ability to focus on several things at once and respond faster to unexpected stimuli. –Laura Devaney

[From Elizabeth. The article focuses on possibilities with Second Life in a classroom.]

category: Gaming, Pedagogy, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

“You can ban kids from listening to rock ‘n’ roll music, but they’re going to anyway,” he added. “It’s the same with information, and it’s a bad educator that bans their students from reading Wikipedia.”

In 2005, at the height of the controversy over the site’s accuracy, Mr Wales told the BBC that students who copied information from Wikipedia “deserved to get an F grade”. –Alistair Coleman

[Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales’s take on citing Wikipedia now and then. An important distinction is made here in that college attempts teaching students how to conduct research in an academic environment toward producing a new or overlooked argument. The constantly changing accuracy or possibility of inaccuracy robs students from finding niches and innovating older ideas. I continue banning my students from citing Wikipedia and I know I am NOT a bad educator. BK]

category: Pedagogy, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

Freeverse’s first idea is for a line of “Flick Sports” products for the iPhone and iPod touch — 3D games that utilize the device’s unique input controls for immersive gameplay. Freeverse said it’s working on golf, bowling, soccer and baseball games to start. –Peter Cohen

category: Gaming, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

According to Ars Technica, Sony has some big plans for a PlayStation 3 refresh, starting with a phase-out of the 80GB model. According to an “inside source” — which Ars claims has been consistently right on video game-related predictions — the console-maker’s new plot is starting to take shape, holding fast to a two-SKU approach on packages, upping the hard drive capacity on systems, and including the Dual Shock 3 controller. The new bundles will take the high / low road, with the source stating that the 40GB model will remain on shelves, while the 80GB, Spider-Man 3-inclusive system will disappear, only to be replaced with a 120GB or 160GB configuration. Of course, right now these are just words on a screen, though in light of Best Buy’s recent stock changes, there certainly is an air of movement over at Sony. –Joshua Topolsky

[From Elizabeth. She asks “If the DualShock controller gets any stronger, will anyone be able to still hold on to it? Plus who really needs 160GB of saved games?” and I am not sure the vibration function on the controller is strong at all. I imagine that players who play the MMORPGs like Final Fantasy XI probably need that much hard drive space, but maybe PS3 games are larger files compared with PS2. BK]

category: Gaming, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

“[In Nov.] I flip through the Wii menu and visit the Mii Channel so I can peruse the many friends that I have created with the guys that I played with in Iraq,” writes Tony in an email to GoNintendo. “As I go through the characters, I see there is a Mii that I have not created. It’s a guy strikingly similar to my wife’s [alleged lover].

“To be sure of this, I went into the Wil Message Board and click on the Calendar option. Through this menu I was able to identify the many nights my wife’s Mii and this ‘other’ Mii Character played Wii Bowling together.” –Blake Snow

[According to the article, Tony is an Armed Forces member who returned home after serving a tour in Iraq and passed time playing games on his Nintendo Wii. BK]

category: Gaming, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology