Writing Machines is the course website for English 170L at Pomona College in Claremont, California.
projects, more video games, attitude toward blogs
Submitted by Lulu on 7 December 2006 - 2:10am.
A couple things--
1. Everybody's projects are amazing and I'm so impressed with everyone's work over the course of the semester. It's really cool being able to see what exactly everyone's been occupied with over the last two months. Would it be possible to make one post with links to everyone's projects? And to keep that post at the top of this class blog so that it's accessible all the time? (one thing that's always annoyed me about blogs is that if it's an active blog, then you have to keep clicking "next page" to get to fairly recent posts because everyone posts so much) So is there a way to put everyone's projects in a single post and keep it on the front page? I definitely want to take time to explore more during my own time. I like everyone's projects so much that I feel like we deserve to be mentioned in the institute for the future of the book or some other techie world site, because it'd be cool to share beyond our class.
2. This is random, but not really. CBS is having a World Series of Video Games as part of their CBS Sports Spectacular. There's an article in the NY Times here. That is so cool! Video games are technically sports? We debated extensively about whether video games were books, but are games also sports? Since CBS is a very mainstream network, I wonder how they're going to pitch this special or make it appealing to audiences. I think it would be funny to watch people's reactions while playing games rather than the actual game. I like those documentary shows that follow normal people as they prepare for big competitions, like those little kids who put their hearts and souls into spelling bees. Or the shows on the Food Network that follow chefs as they prepare for pastry competitions. Those are always ridiculous. I love those shows. I hope this video game thing is along the same lines.
3. I was also curious as to whether this class changed people's habits and attitudes towards blogs? Did it make people blog more (outside of this class blog) or follow blogs more? I know that not that many people said they were constant bloggers at the beginning of the semester, but has that changed over the course of the semester?
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projects page
Thanks for this suggestion, Lulu. I've actually created a page that I intended to use for links to all of your projects (or what of your projects you don't mind me including publicly-accessible links to). I haven't populated it or made it sticky yet, as I'm waiting for your projects to be finalized, but I'll do so in the coming days.
Along which lines, when you submit your project, would you let me know whether you'd mind if I link to it from the projects page?
And finally: I know that some of you intended to use the machines.pomona.edu space for your projects, but had trouble with FTP. If you'd still like to use that space (to keep your project a bit more permanent than your pages.pomona.edu space will be, for instance), would you let me know, and I'll see if I can help you get it moved there?
Thanks for a great bunch of presentations, and an exciting bunch of projects. I look forward to reading through them all.
blogs
The class sold me on blogs. I hadn't paid attention. I'm impressed by the possibilities for extended narrative. But I'm also impressed with the way this class was run. I definitely want to incorporate blogs in the classes I teach. I'm hoping I can play with the software enough to incorporate them for the winter session come January.
blogs today
First off, I have to second your praise for the final projects this semester. I was so impressed by the technical and creative skill of our class!
To address your last question, I was definitely one of the people who began the class with some trepidation. I had never blogged or even really read many blogs. Basically, I thought e-mailing was a high-tech skill, so this semester has definitely been a growing experience.
I'm really happy that I've gotten a chance to explore the (surprisingly large) world of blogs, hypertexts and electronic literature in general. I think that, while I don't have plans to start my own blog anytime soon, I will be more aware of the possibilities of online literature and I will probably be spending more time reading these sorts of things online.