P. 22
Regarding Devoss’s experience on working on this chapter: as I read through her morning ritual, it truly emphasizes how out of touch I am with the technological world. I have a few morning rituals myself, but not as many and as compounded as our author. I suppose that always comes with time, however, I have vowed to find a way to utilize Google docs, because the simple accessibility is amazing. I assume it would have to be an immense benefit for me, professionally. As I read through her list of items for the morning, I now see the usefulness of two monitors as Professor has stated, even though the thought seemed a bit overwhelming, initially. What does toggle mean? Possibly navigating the pointer? These are the little terms and jargon I need to pick up on. Like steps perhaps: one at a time.
P. 24
Resituating the “Digital Generation”- This section brought something to light for me. I utilize my library card and always have, because growing up, we didn’t have much as far as resources in my house. Most of the literature I was exposed to was either provided to me through school or through my local library. Moving on, I have noticed that when I am in need of certain services such as printing, it is hard-pressed to have substantial browsing time on a public PC. The Southgate Veterans Memorial library only allow 30 minutes for browsing to their patrons, I can barely open my iheart account and get my music going in 30 minutes, much less write a paper or do research. I have also experienced the cost of printing, when I run out of ink and do not have time to replenish it. To print page by page at the library is much more costly than it is to invest in ink, .10 a page to be precise. I know I have a print budget at Halle, but getting to campus early enough to print is not always an option for me. Essentially, the resources it requires to not own a PC is almost as perturbing as it is to invest in one. I would argue investing and maintain a laptop/PC is even less expensive than visiting public locations. The digital age is a movement in society, but as I have observed myself, not everyone is capable of taking part in it. I have also railed at how long I have to wait to get on a PC, there are still many people who do not own a PC. This is why ordering my ink ahead is crucial. Printing at home is most certainly a luxury. Thus, fragments of society are not being exposed to this luxury, and it has to affect the way in which they are learning to utilize technology for their own benefit, or lack there of.
January 19, 2012
truebloodcreator
truebloodcreator 
2 responses to ““Because Digital Writing Matters” – Devoss. Ch. 1”
englishgal516
January 21st, 2012 at 17:46
Dawn, I’m glad you mentioned p. 22 in BDWM. It exhausted me just reading about Devoss’s morning routine. I find it astounding that she can engage in such intense multitasking and still seemingly be so productive work-wise. I sometimes have trouble focusing on my work if I have my email open—every time I see a new message in my minimized inbox, I have to open it, and for some reason answering email (especially if it is personal email) does not “count” in my mind as being productive. I sometimes wonder if my attention span has suffered as a result of technology…
But when I am focusing on my work (which does actually happen sometimes:)), I have recently thought that having two monitors would certainly be useful when working on multiple projects, as you mentioned. At first I scoffed at the idea, thinking it would just lead to sensory overload, but now I completely understand the motivation for such a setup.
truebloodcreator
April 21st, 2012 at 23:40
Molly,
I actually tried this method when putting my Ignite together. I’m not sure if I tried it, because I was forced to or because I wanted to. When I say forced, what I mean is I work with a Mac and I don’t have Office for Mac loaded, I use Open Office (it’s free!) however, it does pose problems at time, because of the conversion issue. Anyway, I was working with my Mac on Google Docs, presentations and also on my old Toshiba (really old and slow) so I could download the docs file as a pptx and manipulate it that way for Derek. Eventually I discovered that Derek would do this for us, but those details are not important here.
Now, typically I’d say this was frustrating, but it was only because my dinosaur Toshiba is very slow and not efficient. Yet, I have to say that it was refreshing to find that I actually could move from screen to screen and still stay on task. I actually got a number of things done: answering emails, taking notes in my notebook while I worked with docs, downloading pics via Google images, uploading pics to picnik to create new pics, and thinking of the way I wanted my slides to be organized. I was so surprised at how much I accomplished, because like you, I thought the information overload would be too nuts for me to maintain, but I was successful. Now, of course, your definition and my definition of success could be different, but nonetheless I was pleasantly surprised that the PC monster never jumped out and swallowed me whole. The experience makes me want to invest in a new desk top or another laptop, just so I can practice this 🙂