what became of the inquiry

I didn't know what I didn't know.
It's that simple.

I figure it will take this year and more to bring my 1980s-90s digital settler self into the 21st century.

So I exchanged my public inquiry focus to something I can do, in part, in my sleep: the impact of summer reading and, the flip side, what impacts the summer reading experience.

My inquiry into digeracy (I want to be one of the digerati in my next life)--newly freed of APA-formatted review of the literature due in December and planning the study (due in writing in April, presented in May) before embarking on the quest (like when have I ever done anything in someone else's prescribed sequence?)--has taken on a life of its own! Co-teaching a technology course (what a wonderfully inquiring group of adult learners this class is!) has given me the purpose I needed (and the excuse) to delve into new technologies I could only namedrop a few weeks ago.

So I may blog about those experiences here--and the professional readings (yes, I'm doing that with a passion) too. A travel log of sorts . . .

This week's celebration . . . Did you know that PowerPoint presentations can be saved as a series of pictures? Which means digital story telling (mastering [I thought] Photo Story was last year's triumph ) can indeed require some digital story reading ;-) Can't wait to play with that!

More to come . . .

personal technology update 1: the car

I finally did use that rear window wiper one dewy morning last week--without reverting to the print manual. Just punched a button with a promising symbol and got lucky! But it's the old technology that has me puzzled.

Thanks to emerging technologies, I get car diagnostics via email every month. Each month, noticing the tires had lost yet another psi, I've resolved to find or buy a tire gauge and maybe replace my ancient tire pump.

A couple of weeks ago, one of those dashboard lights came on and stayed on for a while before giving up on my paying appropriate attention. I was paying attention. After two days in the depths of the manual, I learned the universal (?) symbol for low tire pressure--which I will remember more for its location on the dash of this car than I will for its shape (so much for the universal concept :-/ ).

Last weekend my son, with his also ancient pump (but it did have a gauge!), helped me get the tires back up to standard--or so we thought. The monthly diagnostics, received on a Thursday, look not unlike last Saturday's readings. Delayed email? Leaky valve stems?

So I've done some upgrading. Tomorrow my 3K-miles-driven all-but-new car goes in for its first factory recall service--a possible power steering fluid leak which would, by the way, explain the way it complains when I back out of the driveway and head out in the mornings . . . With the price of gas, there's much to be said for one-stop shopping. I added getting the tires checked out to my personal technology recall list for tomorrow. I scheduled both appointments online . . .

BTW, I do now own a high-tech tire gauge that can be programmed to remember different settings for front and rear tires--serious technological overkill since 30 psi all around is easy enough for my brain to hold onto for now (kind of like the home thermostat I've never programmed beyond the 68-degree heating and 78-degree cooling absolutes). The new pump--a leaner and meaner version (but hopefully with some ooomph!)--also has a gauge. Both tire gauge and pump are still in the box/shrinkwrap/house . . .

Guess I should be grateful for the 3-month break from automotive repair waiting rooms. . . This one has popcorn (can't eat any until my current dental adventure is finished [hoping for Thanksgiving . . .]) and wi-fi (but I'm opting to spend my time with something of substance, of paper and ink).

In some, maybe many, ways, I'm a digital settler. It's good for the resume, for job security, for exercising the brain. But on my own time? Very much the immigrant, delighting in my native language and culture in the quiet spaces I call home.

Honoring UAF93 . . .

Click on the link above . . .

personal technology--mp3 player

The story of how I came to own one--and why I waited so long--is on my other blog (click link above). But here are the digital immigrant confessions . . .

what I already knew
how to download music
how to create playlists
that shuffle is a universal play option
that the usb ports in my new PC are powered (but don't try charging the player on the upstairs computer . . .)
that, when all else fails (or sooner), consult the manual
that my new toy could be a hazard to my perfect hearing :-)

what I had to learn
how to use a joystick controller (I know that speaks volumes about what else I have yet to experience . . . but I'm going for truth here)
how to turn my player off and on
that mp3 player menus work a lot like cell phone and digital camera menus and that I'm still a neophyte in mastering any of these
that iPod has a corner on the docking station and speaker market and finding the right, affordable model for my player is going to be a challenge
that I really do need earphones I can trust to stay in place
that I've been missing out much too long on this source of music therapy/pleasure!!!!

personal technology--the car

I'm sure my status as a digital immigrant will be much too obvious here. But here goes, all the same.

I bought a new car two weeks ago. If I were a digital native, the manual would still be virgin territory. While I can't say I've read it cover to cover (manuals aren't meant to be read that way--even I know that!), I can say that I did look up the location of the control to the rear window wiper (a technology new to me) and that, even armed with that assistance, I'm still very puzzled . . .

My new car is in the shop today--leather seating upgrade--and I'm in a loaner, different model but same colors (even the leather) and similar controls. But I've already consulted that car's manual too, not trusting myself to learn simply by playing/doing . . .

There is hope for this digital immigrant though. While it took me four days to muster enough nerve to have my opening conversation with OnStar, I'm totally in love with this technological advance! I actually trusted its disembodied voice to tell me, turn by turn (and were there ever a lot of turns!) how to get to a beach I'd never visited! Well, I did, momentarily, tell it I'd find my own way after it complained when I left the route (just following the beach traffic signs in a place where I knew my way) and asked me if I needed it to recalculate. Momentarily. Truth was that I was well off my printed-out Mapquest route by then and the highway maps from my old car had not yet made their way into my new one . . . and I didn't know how to get where I was going . . . most especially in the pouring down rain.

OnStar talked me home as well--a different route but just as efficient as the first.

I have yet to read the OnStar manual (did read the getting started flyer) or load/explore the CD . . . But, I'm hooked all the same!!!!

Now to find the control for the rear window wiper (and, more importantly, to understand why and when I would use this feature???) . . .

inquiry 2008-09

Experimenting again . . .

My "other" blog was birthed as an attempt to use a blog as the vehicle for presenting a multigenre project for a writing course I was taking. Multigenre naturally evolved into multimedia, something I could not have accomplished by pen(cil) and paper alone. The funny thing was how long it took me to realize that my blog could not be an exact replica of the pieces I had already crafted--first in my writer's notebook and then in Word. One entry is a scan--just had to bring Contrails across the digital divide. But, over time, I have grown very comfortable with the blog, with its limitations and its possibilities.

And now . . .

I used to think best on paper, with pencil in hand. There are still moments . . . when, convert that I've become, I still revert.

But it seems practical, this next year, as I focus on what it means to be digitally literate as a reader and a writer, that I do my thinking here, in this digital world.

To that end, I will post my professional readings (both summaries and reactions) and the progress of my inquiry (at present still groping for the question) here in my virtual sandbox.

Tracking my thinking . . .

Going public . . .

Ouch!

My Fatal Flaw

Well, you know me! I'm going to try to wiki with my students. I've already set up my site, but immediately got overwhelmed with the unfamilair technology and ran to something I know I can do well. Blog. But eventually I'll get back into the wiki site, set it up, and give it to my students. Naturally, I won't know half of what a wiki is capable of until my students get hold of it. That's exactly how I learned how to use think.com: I gave it to my students and then learned solely in order to keep up with them! If I waited until I was completely comfortable to give a wiki to students, then I would never do it! No, the best thing for me to do is to hit the road running, and learn as I go. Which is why you will probably see wikis in my near future! But then again, this overwhelming compulsion to dive right into something is also why you'll probably also see me freaking out when I discover my students know more about wikis than I do! But NOT FOR LONG!!! :)