So- here's the info on the large-format printer-

http://innovate.ecn.purdue.edu/src/TAofficehour.php

It's in the Morgan Center EPICS lab. Be careful of the hours it's available.

I'm not sure what the point of the iTunes article was. I saw that it was a sort of case study of an office using the iTunes sharing feature, but I didn't know the real upshot. So I'll try to make one.

I think that Bogost's notion of procedural rhetoric is fantastic. Rhetoric is made more deep when we look at systems that force people to make specific choices and put them in specific constraints. Plus persuasive rhetoric's consideration of how decisions and persuasion are situationally determined is totally rhetorical as we understand it right now.

How's that for an attention-getting opener?

NOTE: THIS MESSAGE IS FROM THE FUTURE! (I accidentally read ahead, thinking that today was the first day of week 11.)

I'm not really impressed with the examples I saw in this section of the book. Of the gamers identified, we saw: 1) a disadvantaged loner at a self-diagnosed low intelligence level who escapes the stress of his life via video games, 2) two D&Ders that escape the stresses of their lives playing video games (and also learn "community ethics," although I'm not entirely convinced of this), 3) three nintendo geeks and 4) a couple who bond over video games.

I really liked Pat's article on e-learning and the stories being told about it in the corporate and college world (and beyond). What was perhaps most interesting to me was how, in a few cases, she finds fault in stories that are meant to sound entirely positive about e-learning. Basically, the stories are forwarded by corporations or learning institutions in an effort to advocate e-learning, but Pat picks up on the subcutaneous problems inherent in the systems they create.

I feel mixed about Banks's work, largely because I think that he could be even more concise in his expression and presentation of content. But this post is not about that.

I have two thoughts on Janet Eldred's essay on compositionists doing more compositions:

1) I really like it. The idea that we should do real creative work outside of the "academic essay" (whatever that is) really entices me, and having read Gilyard's Voices of the Self and Villanueva's BootstrapsI think that there is definitely a place for hybrid discourse to make an impact on the field. And I love to write that kind of stuff.

Off-Topic, But speaking of video: Isn't my avatar hip? God, I wish I was more like Max Headroom in that picture.

On-Topic: It's a few days late, but I wanted to share this idea, as it just hit me: I finally understand what the "Luddite" was talking about in Tuesday's reading.

His argument started out sounding like BS. We should prevent computers and the Internet from reaching their full potential? You are a bad person. But my perspective should be expected, as I have 20-20 hindsight and the fact that I chose to be in this class means that I stand next to computers.

After reading the readings for this week, especially with attention to their work on MOOs, I stand by my opinion from last week that if I went back in time to these MOO dawnings, I would have just as much trouble as the troubled students listed in the articles.