1. What are the 2 or 3 points you think are most valuable from this week’s readings? What about for this week’s video clips and documentaries? Here is a template for how to approach answering this question each week: In [name of reading],

states that [main point] which is important because [why]. For this question, each main point should be expressed in no more than 280 characters (tweet length!). 2. Choose one point from this week’s lectures, readings, or media, and connect it back to one of the key course questions that feels most relevant to you right now, and explain the connection you are making as best you can. It could be something that seems most important, or something that is new to you – it’s up to you how to take this question on. Again, here are our DIGC 160 3 Guiding Questions: – How do we understand something as a “new” technology? – How can we analyze the ways that members of a culture use technology as a locus for evolving or conflicting cultural practices and social change? – And, how does culture affect our understanding of a technology and how we use it? Don’t include your own questions yet – that’s the next question! 3. Thinking back on the readings and media for this week, what questions do you have? What needs more explanations, more examples, or more detail? If you have no questions, try out giving an example of your own on one of this week’s concepts, and connect your example to one of this week’s topics or main points. Aim for 1-3 questions or comments. For each question or comment you include, you have a maximum count of 280 characters (yes, consider these each tweets). 4. Connection ideas from this week’s readings, lectures, and/or media to topics of your own interest (aim for 1-2, but some weeks you might have more). You should pick specific examples, concepts, or terms, and connect them up to your own interests, project, or goals. During week 1-3, the field of what you can choose and how you use it is wide open – during weeks 4-7, this is the place to connect up what you read to your own capstone project. This question is deliberately left open – there may be only one point that really stands out for you, but there also might be a few. Take on no more than three things. For this question, for each idea you discuss, present it in tweet format, with a maximum of 280 characters. (hint: you can talk about multiple ideas – each one is its own tweet) In this episode we’ll look at a technology that was critical to the development of the digital age, magnetic tape, and a cultural tendency that underlies the adoption and use of a number of new technologies – what is commonly referred to as the DIY (Do It Yourself) ethic. My goal is to provide a framework for exploring our key course questions – particularly in what we are defining as a new technology, how it intersects with the many aspects of our society, and how our culture uses and defines that technology, using these two elements. In our current world magnetic tape is all but extinct, but we wouldn’t have an internet – much less computers – without it. Magnetic tape is based on the technology of magnetized coils of the late 19th century, but the magnetic tape that dominated 20th century usage was not developed until 1932 and was not used commercially in the US until Bing Crosby recorded his radio broadcasts for NBC radio in 1947. Magnetic recording was something of a miracle invention, solving problems of data storage and speedy access, as Schoenherr (2002) notes. IBM and others focused on the problem of storing and retrieving information throughout the 1950s, and by 1962 had developed a viable storage drive using disks that would be useable and popular for computer use. While I won’t trace all of the history here, consider the following: this same technology would have huge implications for commercial use and industry – consumer tape recorders (which I’ll talk about more), the VCR, the compact cassette, credit cards, and the floppy disk all used this technology, and the digital audio tape of the 1980s transformed it into the forms we use today. I’ll come back to magnetic tape shortly. The DIY, or Do It Yourself, ethic is one of self-sufficiency through completing tasks or creating goods without the aid of a paid expert. The idea behind it is that anyone is capable of – literally – doing it for themselves. While this isn’t always true, the DIY mindset isn’t really new – elements of this ethic date back centuries, it was popularized as a movement in the 1950s and 1960s building on the values of self-reliance popularized during World War II in the US, and the surge of new media fueled by television and affordable home electronics. There are many examples of DIY culture, one that also allows us to explore how it connects with magnetic tape is with the cassette tape and the cassette recorder. The compact cassette was invented by the Philips, the Dutch audio technology company in 1962, and sold in the US starting in 1964. Though it was never intended to create a new form of music making, it was seen in its time as a way of filling in a gap in the home entertainment market. Philips build on a thin magnetic tape developed by 3M that was able to reproduce an adequate (though not high-quality) audio sound appropriate for casual users. And to promote the use of this product, Philips began producing Musicassettes (their trademarked name for pre-recorded music cassettes) with noise reduction in 1965. What really solidified the commercial prominence of cassette technology for over 30 years was the introduction of car radio cassette systems in the late 1960s, which meant people could take their recordings with them and play them in the car. More importantly yet, people could make their own recordings (something that the major labels in the music industries of the US and Europe took very seriously) on their home compact cassette recorders and share them. Recording music from the radio was one very common instance of this, but even more importantly from our perspective, DIY musicians – people who were using the new media – radio and records, in particular, to learn how to play music instruments – began using this new technology to record their own music-making, and using these recordings to both help them get live music performing jobs for their groups and also to sell their music to their fans. The very portability of audio cassette recording technology challenged the business model of the existing corporate sound recording industry, and a whole generation of legislation was passed in order to protect the business model – particularly using copyright laws – of this industry. The questions raised by the DIY cassette culture that began in the late 1960s has yet to be resolved, partly because different local cultures around what it means to own an idea vary dramatically around the world. Indeed, whole music cultures – surrounding bands like the Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen, the underground music scene that was first known as punk in the 1970s, and many instances of early House recordings in the late 1970s and early 80s, leading to the genre we know as hip hop – all these depended on DIY cassette recording. I want to point out that DIY movements around audio recording have never been limited to just the audio cassette. Recordings from this era were made often as much for archival purposes – as an early way of documenting a show to listen to again in the future – just like recording radio broadcasts. If not for DIY audio recording of television shows, for example, we would not today be able to see and hear what (for example) happened during that week of February 1968 when Harry Belafonte guest hosted for The Tonight Show. While many different uses for this kind of archiving certainly took place, what this tool – and movie cameras of the time – were most often used for are far more everyday. Take a moment and look on the camera of your smartphone; think about what you document there; people have not changed over the past century, even though the technologies we use to document many aspects of our lives has. Let me explain give an example of how the compact cassette recorder transformed – in this case – the music industry. Garage bands, or collectives of teenage musicians who practiced playing and making music together starting in the 1960s, all of a sudden had a way of recording the music they made, and using those recordings to – and this is the important bit – create demos that displayed the group’s style, sound, and expertise without paying for experts to record them. This meant that kids without any income stream could make recordings to give to club owners or booking agents, sell recordings they made and duplicated themselves to audiences and generate their own buzz or market, just to give a couple of examples. One consequence of this use of DIY music making has been the slow decline of the small professional recording studio. Consider one example of the consequences here: on January 4, 1954, Elvis Presley went into the Memphis Recording on Union Avenue in Memphis, TN to make a recording of a song for his mother’s birthday. Would rock and roll have happened the same way if Elvis had had his own cassette recorder? One other usage of audio cassette recording becomes important to helping us understand technology cultures of our own era, and that is another form of homemade audio recording that began in the 1960s. The era that was considered something of a “golden age” for audio cassette mixtapes was the 1980s – the concept of creating a personalized recording on a theme became fundamental to a number of music cultures – from DJs creating hip hop mixes to making a personalized recording for a friend, lover, or ex (of whatever sort) that tells a story. Mixtapes are used for all sorts of reasons. IN 2010 Stock identified four categories of mixtapes – “the letter” demonstrates the maker’s or (the maker’s approximation of) the receiver’s taste – these are usually made for someone else. Second, “convenience tapes” copy an already produced album to explore a new musician or avoid purchasing the album altogether. The ‘lesson” is often intended to introduce a listener to music they might not be familiar with, and finally, the “mood/theme tape” is related to themes relevant to that person or another person’s personality or a shared experience. (Stock 2010: 283) In our digital world, these are often called playlists, but the creative intention of creating a collage of pre-existing content to tell a new story recreates the mixtape in a digital context. On the other hand, the cassette recorder fed into an existing tradition called bootleg recording – which in the sense I am using it here means unofficial recordings made that are never meant to be released in the first place. Bootleg recordings take their metaphorical meaning from drawing on the practice of smuggling illicit items in the legs of tall boots – something that was a common technique in smuggling alcohol during the American Prohibition era in the early 20thcentury – but has since become a metaphor for sharing an illegal or illicit product. In mainstream culture we see them mixtapes to glorify and sentimentalize the past (our own or that of our culture) – consider the story told in Nick Hornby’s 1995 book High Fidelity, which was made into the 2000 film with John Cusack, a Broadway musical in 2006, and remade and updated as a TV series in 2020. Clearly, this story hit a nerve for mainstream storytelling. Similarly, the 2014 film Guardians of the Galaxy has a mixtape as one of the key components of the story. Beyond sharing examples of stories created – or uncovered? – around mixtapes, one of my favorite examples of how much value they have in our collective storytelling mythologies comes from professional blogger Jon Negroni, who regularly writes on pop culture and engages with “fan culture” – a subcultural movement that explores, revises, and creates its own set of meanings around published creative content (primarily written and filmed stories). Negroni developed his own story around the role of the “Awesome Mixtape” that Guardians of the Galaxy central character Starlord carries around with him, and published it on his blog a year after the film was released. What I personally find most engaging are the comments posted on this particular blog post, where other fans dissect the mixtape and Negroni’s analysis. What is particularly important to us about the mixtape is that in itself it has become a metaphor, generated by its own process of creating a personal story through the choice of media content, and conveying meanings in our current cultural moment that are specific to the generations that experience them. And, to call something a mixtape will carry different meanings in different communities and generations – a mixtape can reflect compact cassettes used to create one of the recording types Negroni describes, whereas it can also mean the creative process of DJing hip hop. Mixing – and remixing – carry the idea of reusing old content to create new meanings, but all of them carry the DIY ethic of self-sufficiency. Relevant content and images to go with this lecture: Early compact cassette recorder: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/early-portable-tape-recorder-compact-cassette-1282799041 (Links to an external site.) Maxey, Ron. “Wise men say Jan. 4 is an important date in Elvis history” Commercial Appeal 1/4/2018. Accessed from https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2018/01/04/wise-men-say-jan-4-important-date-elvis-history/1005286001/ (Links to an external site.) Negroni, Jon. 2015. “The Hidden Story Behind Star-Lord’s ‘Awesome Mix’ in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’”. Accessed from https://jonnegroni.com/2015/03/04/the-hidden-story-behind-star-lords-awesome-mix-in-guardians-of-the-galaxy/ (Links to an external site.). Stock, Paul V. “Sociology and the Mix Tape: A Metaphor of Creativity” The American Sociologist Vol. 41 No. 3 (October 2010): 277-291. In this episode, I want to dig into some concepts that will be very useful for us. The first will be defining analog technology, the second will be in identifying how analog and digital technologies differ, and the third will build out Harris Berger’s notion of horizons for perception and ties them into how we engage with and understand both analog and digital recordings. Finally, I will tie this back to the DIY ethic of self-sufficiency – that idea of a maker culture becomes increasingly important to understand our relationship to the digital technologies of our current era. As we get closer to our own technological era, it becomes more difficult to select out what elements of technology we can talk about in isolation, and this episode’s topic illustrates why and how that came to be. I have been describing technology change in terms of objects and inventions, but as we explore the microprocessor and the microcomputer, we need to shift our analogies. Analog technology itself uses electricity to transmit information from one point to another, while digital technology translates that information as binary (zero or one) code, and then transmits that code from one point to another. Analog technologies directly tie the way something is done to the thing it is representing. So, if we consider an analog watch, the technology powers the device, but what we are interacting with is the movement of the hands around the dial to tell us what time it is. Consider what we’re getting as a result is the hands’ position around the dial represents the movement of those hands in time. Digital technology adds yet another layer to the transmission of information and analogy. It has a number of advantages over analog – the format of translation is much, much faster, and it takes far less space to store it. Digital information is more secure, since it is easier to encrypt and protect numerical information, and the content becomes easier to manipulate and edit in this form. This isn’t to say that digital content is always of higher quality than analog. For one thing, analog sound waves carry the full spectrum of sound frequency, which means the information conveyed can be more complex. Sound recordings that are recorded and played back on analog players – if they are using the highest level of quality equipment – will have a richer and fuller sound than digital ones. Similarly, analog watches can actually keep better time than a quartz watch. As one more example, given that we have not yet settled on mechanisms for adequately storing and preserving digital data, we don’t yet have any universal way of preserving and being able to use old digital recordings. Old computer files can be impossible to access and read on new computers, and information, for example, from 1980s floppy disks are now impossible to access. Which means the old computer game I loved playing in 1999 – since I can’t find it online – is lost to me forever. What I’ve just shared here uses a series of metaphors that we use to represent concepts we take for granted – the movement of a tool measured changes in time of something – whether it was levels of power (like we’d see in measuring electric current), or sound waves, that measure changes or variations in sound. This is also relevant to making an analog cassette recording – what is processed on the plastic film that is the tape is an approximation – an analogy – of what is heard when the sound is reproduced live, or unmediated by technology. The same is true for photographs. Consider that the complete, unmediated sound, or image – if we discussed the same example around photography or film – will always contain more information than the recording presents. There are filters and limitations on the recording process that will always select some elements rather than others to be captured on the recording medium. Ethnomusicologist Dr. Harris Berger spoke to some of these sound limitations in his 2004 book, Identity and Everyday Life,when he talks about the ways we deal with horizons of sight and sound. He creates a hypothetical drive into the country to a path, where he is walking along a trail. I’ll share a brief segment of this with you: “Getting out of the car you take stock of the situation. The rolling hills have given way to a long flat expanse and the mountains still rise up in the distance. The sounds of the river must be reflecting off a slight depression in the road, because you hear them as immersive, seemingly coming from everywhere. In the distance, the light from a streetlamp illuminates a small sign and a large rectangular shape that might be a phone booth. The cloudy sky makes the evening very dark, and aside from the road, the ground, and the distant mountains, there is nothing else to be seen. You head off toward the sign and the object. To occupy your mind as you walk, you attend carefully to the appearance of the words on the sign. At this distance, the words are blurry and indistinct; they are too small to be read and take up only a small percentage of your visual field. With each step, though, they take up slightly more of your visual field. There is another feature of those letters that you notice. You experience them as the visual equivalent of promissory notes. Each indistinct detail seems to beckon, to be there in a way that implies that closer inspection will reveal more details.” (Berger 2004, 43-44) Dr. Berger talks about this scenario as an example of the phenomenological concept of horizon where the idea of a horizon refers both to the extreme edges of what we immediately experience and to how different facets of what we perceive is connected to all the others. What this means for us in terms of recorded representations of our sensory experiences is that we use all the different aspects of what is around us in how we decide what aspects of the experience we pay attention to, and what aspects we ignore. Harris’s ideas about horizons is helpful in understand how technology, as it exists in our current world is unable to make the educated, human choices of relevance and context – humans must do this for themselves. Let’s go back to an example from the 19th century for a moment: why is it that Edison’s dictation phonograph would not work? Because it could not make the human choices and interpretations necessary to decide what information from a sensory experience is important. From the early phonograph recordings, it was the context of business communications norms and formats that would translate a speaker’s words into a coherent business letter. This is a problem that is more easily solved with early photography, say from 1920s Turkey, but even here an understanding both of how the tools themselves need to be employed to create an analog photograph that is usable and comprehensible to an audience (like the photographer’s parents). Analog recording technology of the 1970s was no different. The tool itself – the compact cassette recorder – lacked the built-in expertise to select out irrelevant sounds to illuminate the meaningful expression of content that a live listener would take away from the situation. I’ll go one step further: consider making any audio recording, even today. Using a recording app on my phone, I can practice delivering this episode for you, and in order to produce a reasonably clean and accurate recording, I need to control my environment for sounds and distracting stimuli. My digital voice recorder app can be programmed to some extent to filter out some background noise, but even here the tool is not “smart” enough to make the choices I would make for what a listener should pay attention to. Take a minute and try this for yourself: turn on some kind of recorded media to a moderately loud level, and, with this on, make a recording of yourself speaking on your phone or your computer using the video app (or an audio app) on your phone. Play it back – what do you notice? Odds are really high that whatever media you have playing in the “background” doesn’t sound like it’s in the background – the app you’re using to record does not distinguish between your voice and the sounds around you; it isn’t highlighting your voice and eliminating the background sound. We have rudimentary versions of filters on our audio-visual tools like Zoom that can filter out some background noise, but again, it is only creating an analogy of what sounds are important, and the video quality is limited by the capabilities of the webcam – it won’t accurately reflect all the elements that the live experience would. What I hope you will take away from this episode comes in three pieces: first, the shift from analog to digital technology increased the separation from the physical experience we have in a place or in engaging with a thing – which means we are increasingly dependent on metaphors to help us understand the tool we are using as well as how we understand what we share using that tool. Second, just because we are now using new tools does not mean that those tools are always going to produce a superior product to what the old tool would produce. We make choices as a society and as individuals as to what technologies we will employ, and usability often wins out over the quality of the object produced. Finally, this divergence between quality of product, ease of use, and the comfort level of both individuals and a community’s engagement with a technology means the undercurrent of DIY/maker culture can get increasing emphasis. People who want to be self-sufficient will use the technologies that are relevant to their values and cultural systems.

Mastering the Art of Online Learning: Your Guide to Acing Online Courses

Introduction

In recent years, the popularity of online courses has skyrocketed, offering learners the flexibility to acquire new skills and knowledge from the comfort of their homes. However, succeeding in online courses requires a different approach compared to traditional classroom settings. To help you make the most of your online learning experience, this article presents essential strategies and tips to ace your online courses.

1. Set Clear Goals and Plan Ahead

Before embarking on an online course, establish clear goals and objectives. Determine what you hope to achieve by the end of the course and break down your goals into manageable milestones. Create a study schedule that aligns with your other commitments, ensuring you allocate dedicated time for coursework, assignments, and revision.

2. Create a Productive Study Environment

Establishing a conducive study environment is crucial for online learning success. Find a quiet, well-lit space where you can concentrate without distractions. Remove any potential interruptions, such as notifications from social media or email. Organize your study materials and have a reliable internet connection to ensure seamless access to course materials.

3. Actively Engage in the Course

Active participation is key to mastering online courses. Engage with course materials, including videos, readings, and interactive components. Take comprehensive notes, highlighting key concepts and ideas. Participate in discussion boards, forums, and virtual meetings to interact with instructors and peers, fostering a sense of community and enhancing your understanding of the subject matter.

4. Manage Your Time Effectively

Online courses offer flexibility, but it’s essential to manage your time wisely to avoid falling behind. Create a detailed schedule, allocating specific time slots for coursework, assignments, and studying. Break down larger tasks into smaller, manageable segments to prevent procrastination. Prioritize tasks based on deadlines and dedicate focused time to each one, ensuring consistent progress throughout the course.

5. Develop Effective Communication Skills

Online courses often rely on written communication, making it crucial to hone your skills in this area. Be concise and clear in your written responses, paying attention to grammar and spelling. Actively participate in discussions, asking thoughtful questions and providing constructive feedback to your peers. Regularly check your course emails and notifications, ensuring you stay updated with any important announcements or changes.

6. Utilize Available Resources

Take full advantage of the resources provided by your online course platform and instructors. Familiarize yourself with the learning management system (LMS) and explore its features. Access supplementary materials, such as textbooks, lecture slides, and external resources recommended by instructors. Utilize online libraries, research databases, and tutorial services to deepen your understanding of the subject matter.

7. Stay Motivated and Engaged

Maintaining motivation throughout an online course can be challenging, particularly when faced with competing priorities or a lack of face-to-face interaction. Set short-term goals and reward yourself upon their completion. Connect with fellow learners through virtual study groups or online forums to foster a sense of camaraderie. Regularly remind yourself of the benefits and personal growth associated with completing the course successfully.

8. Seek Support and Clarification

Don’t hesitate to seek support or clarification when needed. Reach out to your instructors for guidance or clarification on course material. Utilize online discussion forums to ask questions or engage in collaborative problem-solving. Leverage the support services provided by your course platform or institution, such as technical support or academic advising.

Conclusion

Online courses present unique opportunities for self-paced learning and personal growth. By setting clear goals, creating a productive study environment, actively engaging with course materials, and managing your time effectively, you can maximize your chances of acing online courses. Remember to stay motivated, seek support when needed, and make the most of the available resources. Embrace the flexibility and adaptability of online learning to achieve your educational goals.