Blog #5

I don’t really have much to add on the New London group reading; partially because it was so dense, and partially because I never got around to reading the whole thing, rather than only my assigned pages.  I rather liked what little I seemed to understand of their idea of transformed practice; it twigged onto certain ideas that have rolled around in my head for some time, though I’m still having trouble properly articulating them.  Perhaps–one day when I have free time–I will re-read the article and it might clarify some things.

 

While I read both the blog post and watched the video, I’m more interested in the video.  The idea that we are the machine/that the machine is using us, and that we will have to redefine a number of concepts due to technological innovation is not new, nor is it surprising, but it is always interesting and difficult.  The web redefines copyright, authorship, ethics, formatting–I know I never indent on a web document, whereas I always indent when typing or writing a formal paper or on paper, as a tiny example.

 

What I find interesting is that although there has been some mention and small discussion of the changing definitions of these things–the video in particular is very good at offering ideas of what will change–there hasn’t been much discussion in class on exactly how this happens, or how it will be accomplished, especially regarding things like copyright and authorship, in both a legal and a social sense.  As someone who writes creatively, these are important concerns and issues.  While the technology is still, in some ways, in its infancy, I haven’t seen a lot of discussion on how these redefinitions will go through.  Perhaps I’m not looking in the right places–that’s always a possibility.