6th Blog

While there are many potential benefits and applications of the paradigm rhetoric, the area that emerges to me is in the use of future college courses.  Not only in english and writing classes, but also communication, math, sciences and philosophy.  The paradigm rhetoric can be a structure by which persons use in order to communicate information.  Because each person is unique to himself, the paradigm rhetoric varies greatly from person to person.  This class made it useful in approaching tasks from different angles, much like crafting our paradigm to represent something new for the moment.  Many times in the university setting, students are conformed by the numbers to turn in the same assignment and learn the same material.  It could be useful to take a step back, recraft one’s paradigm and take a different approach.  New learning and more interesting results may ensue.  This can also be applied to one’s mood and attitude toward a subject.  If a person has certain wisdom in how paradigm’s are created, they will hopefully be able to recognize the variety of different forms.  Some students may be able to apply this in less structured courses.  Then it would be more “How they know”, then “What they know”.

Crossing out Plan A and writing Plan B on a blackboard.

Hey You!

 

Poetics and Reflection for Project 3 are attached under the new page titled Project 3!

Below is a link to project 3:

 

Cory’s Screen Self Portrait!

 

Blog #5: My Personal Database

 

Below are some images that represent my personal database.  I chose images that were taken as selfies because they seem to overpopulate my phone.  There must be something to do with my enjoyment of taking selfies “In the moment” when I feel in my zone.

1. This first photo represents my autobiography and family.  Together, my parents and I joined a patrol at Ski Cooper while I was in high school.  We developed more as a family by completing the rigorous bookwork and “On the hill” skills necessary to be a volunteer ski patroller.  We still benefit from our certification to this day, as my dad has continued to ski patrol in Wyoming, while I use my skills during a summer job.

2.  Can you believe it? Another selfie.  This time taken during my time at work this summer.  This photo represents my school and career/Discipline.  Completing an Outdoor Emergency Care class in order to become a ski patroller has its perks, including allowing me to become a bike patrol in the summer on Pikes Peak.  I am grateful of my background in emergency medicine!  Additionally, I started my degree in Boulder as an Integrative Physiology student.  It can be hard to mix work and play though!

3. My community and social life is filled with so many good memories.  Although most of my friends don’t go to college in Boulder, I still make it a point to see them every year.  I am now known by my friends as the originator of “Selfies with Cory!”.

 

4. Last, but probably most important is the entertainment side of my life.  In addition to watching extreme sports on YouTube, I’ve had a fair share of trials in trying to create my own videos.  Have a look at what is below, but be warned, both videos are fast paced and short!

 

Exercise 4, Part Two!

After watching my video that quantifies a bike ride up Flagstaff Mountain, hopefully you got a sense for the many things that can be measured!  Although it may have seemed like a lot, I believe there were many aspects left out that I could not possibly measure.  Two important ideas would be the very large and very small “Stuff”.  Science has not yet allowed us to measure quantities on the atomic and microscopic level (In this instance) so it’s easy to think about these things, such as the amount of red blood cells working in my veins, but instead I had to estimate their true value.  On the opposite hand, very large amounts of objects that could be seen but never counted also had to be estimated.  I passed thousands of trees on the road, but it would take too long of a time to count them all.

Some things are subjective to individuals and should be noted respectively.  Although I may have not seen (Counted) any fellow bikers on the road, it may have been because I had my head down in deep thought the entire time.  A similar person may have been on the lookout and caught glimpses with at least 5!   Additionally, some physical aspects vary widely from person to person.  I have been told my cadence, or pedal rotations per minute, is somewhat slow.  Although this isn’t a bad thing, it can cause my sum of cadences in an hour to vary quite differently from someone who pedals even a little faster.

Finally, perception is hard to account for.  Some persons may have performed this ride in good standing, and kept a positive attitude the entire time.  In contrast, someone with depressed emotions may have completed this ride only to find out they hated it.  The number of miles they traveled was the same as mine, but their emotional experience varied greatly.  As far as the senses go, it can be difficult to quantify emotions.

Exercise 4, Part one!

A “Machine Vision” of Me

What do websites see and promote when they “think” about me?  As an avid mountain biker, I follow many different technological forms of this topic.  On Facebook, I “Like” images of bikers and, concurrently, I see ads that show related bike gear and tools.  Not only are these Facebook ads influenced by the photos I like, but other websites use my clicks as a source of information for choosing ads.  A reading by Rettberg about “See­ing Our­selves Through Tech­nol­ogy” calls this unlimited source of information a crypticon.  Basically, it’s a series of background apps that track our every move, going on to state, “We don’t know all the ways in which we are being watched or profiled – we simply know  that  we  are.”  

On a website called Pinkbike, one can search for specific models of bikes, pictures of riders by their last name and different events that are coming up.  Because it’s a necessity that you create a profile on their website, they track what photos you upload, the news articles you have been reading and the photos that have chosen to be featured.  A common term for this idea is Capta, which instead of just subjective random data, is more focused information that is based on past experiences and website actions.  This idea encompasses not only websites but also phone applications, music sources and wearable wristbands.  My music app, Spotify, plays hardcore and death metal music, further suggesting bike soundtracks based on my past listenings.  Because I have linked my Facebook account to Spotify so many years ago, I sometimes contemplate how the app knows so much about me.  Additionally, Strava, an app which uses my Iphone’s built in Gps, tracks places I have ridden and ranks me based on how fast I can ride a trail.  Rettberg says, “When we slip an activity tracker onto our wrist rather than enter data manually, the output may feel less subjective. We have less direct control over  it.”  This can get quite controversial if I am trying to reach certain time goals, because in some instances, I don’t bring my phone with me (The miles are not logged).  Fudging the data is all too common for Gps tracking apps like this, where people only turn it on to record their positive moments.

Blog Entry #3

From our unit 1 project on Belief and Story Paradigm, I noticed the use of emotion and compassion when telling a story.  People were able to express their own opinions about topics and share what they thought was important or meaningful.  Because the stories were created by students themselves, the viewers knew this and were probably less critiquing on anything they proposed.  In this way, I found a writer, such as myself, could elaborate about imaginative topics without being criticized heavily.  In addition, the writer didn’t need as much evidence to back up a theory or belief, because it was assumed they were passionate about it and were comfortable around it.  If for instance, a student wanted to write about his findings from a recent survey and his belief on what is soon to happen, he can still share this data in his story.  The only difference is it won’t be weighted quite as heavily if it had otherwise been in a scholarly article. 

In unit two, we focused on more concrete and stable facts and information.  For the most part, we as the authors weren’t creating the majority of the knowledge, but instead gathering it from reputable sources of people.  We were still able to prove a point, but it took more effort, mainly in the way that we have to give evidence before our readers will put trust in us.  In this way, our imagination may not be hindered to nothing, but it sure can be constrained.

I tend to think of believe/imagination vs data/research as polar opposites.    Although research and data can lead you to learn new things, I think imagination can stick in your mind for a longer time.  Here is a short video showing the extremity of this analogy:

Digital Rhetoric Webtext- Personal Reflection

My first insight about the discipline of economics is that the topics are cut and dry.  There is usually very little elaboration and colorful visuals included.  I think economics as a whole tends to stay focused, trying to reach the end point or analysis, rather than delve into numerous side discussions.  To the economic student, professor or someone interested in the subject, the knowledge is a prized possession to use.  The persons interested in the discipline have spent time to understand the topic and can benefit from it.  On the contrary, anyone who is not specifically in search of economic information will find the information useless and boring at times.

For the article writer or researcher that is trying to argue a point, the audience that he or she is speaking to may be rather small.  I realized that may mean the writer will have a difficult time reaching the masses.  At the same time, the persons interested in the article will know what they are getting themselves into and most likely have a better background in the subject.  As far as proof goes, there is a strong limit to what researchers may propose if the idea is not very concrete.  Unlike other disciplines in which topics can be open to many new ideas, economic theories usually build on one another and can lack originality in this way.  For example, in the three articles I read from Ejournal Economics, I noticed similar proofs and laws overlapping all three articles.  

Similar to other disciplines, I have noticed that economic communication may omit information if it is implied.  For comparison, there are ten economic principles that are understood by economic majors, while in mathematics, it is assumed that everyone knows that a number divided by zero is in fact zero.  Both these disciplines and many others use this background knowledge to their advantage.  When it comes to inventions, new theories and discoveries, economics is a rather hard topic to use.  I found that as I was reading articles, I had trouble understanding some of the idea, and began to think I could not create my own if I needed to.  The amount of acquired knowledge necessary to be competent in writing and researching for economics is a great deal.  To communicate with other people on my level, I have yet to go very deep into the discipline, however there is quite an amount of wisdom needed to communicate effectively and scholarly in economics.  

I would have to argue that the discourse of economics is strictly academic and professional.  Anyone will have a hard time reading this disciplines articles in their free time as a personal hobby.  In contrast, english and history are often sought out by the public for entertainment purposes.  In conclusion, a worldview of economics is one that realizes the communication as an analytical potentiality and usefulness in education.  But after all, I do enjoy reading the “Economist” website from time to time.

Summary-Design Memo of Webtext

When a reader were to first visit my site, they may have noticed a lack of creativity in its design.  As an economics major, I have become accustomed to looking at text, charts and numbers instead of images and pictures.  I wanted to portray how many economic articles and other websites use a design that lacks bright colors, excessive background images and videos.  Although it may seem like this was boring, the point was to focus on the material at hand and focus the attention on the text and graphs.  Although I did use images in my webtext, they were surrounded by words and the background of each page was left blank/white.  

For my readers, I tried to focus on making the website as de-cluttered as possible.  I didn’t include many links or arrows that brought the reader to the next page because I wanted them to be in control and choose where they explored.  Unlike some web design sites such as weebly and wordpress, I felt that google sites is more focused towards content rather than design.  The theme I chose allowed text and simple pictures to be placed directly in front of the readers without distraction.  This made my website almost feel like an article or presentation, rather than a media project, which was obviously not the discipline.

The audience I tried to capsulate or imagine was scholar’s similar to my age that did not have familiarity with economics.  I did spend extra time explaining some key terms and ideas that someone outside the discipline may not have understood.  The purpose was therefore to give a brief idea of how knowledge was generally transferred in the field of economics.  Some ideas overlapped with other disciplines and it was my job to not get extremely technical or detailed.