my drafty-draft

Here it is, folks. I hope you can begin to tell at least, but in my project I'm interested in addressing how the current interest surrounding the concept of "re-mix" in our field is actually not that different than earlier views on using imitation to teach writing. Eventually, I'll look at how and why imitation fell out of vogue in composition (namely, I'll attempt to trace the death of imitation in our field as critical pedagogies emerged). I'm interested, too, in what imitation and re-mix allow us to think about (form and, most importantly, the form-content relationship). I see this project, tracing the relationship between "re-mix" and "imitation" as significant to the broader work I'm trying to do in understanding our current attention to form through multi-media work within our field without addressing past challenges to similar work. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or thoughts thus far. I worked hard on the "roots." Oh, and please view the project in "full screen" mode if you can. I think it does matter.

Reflecting on Prezi-making (most of this week's work)

Oddly enough, even though the Prezi that I made of this week "The Roots of Remix: Back to Imitation, Back to Form" was my first Prezi, it wasn't the first Prezi I've helped to compose. Four of my English 201 students are doing Prezis for their final projects this semester, and I've assisted their work by scrambling along side of them to figure out how to embed non-YouTube videos (YouTube vids are quite simple in Prezi; just paste in the link and there it is!) and how to create frames. However, after being quite surprised at the relative struggles my four very bright and savvy students experienced, I could completely relate early this week when I felt like pulling my hair and jumping up and down at the same time. I experienced three main struggles that I want to talk about here, struggles that display how my usual composing process has been shifted and thus made more visible: 1) the composing process (especially creating paths) and how that relates to reading your work aloud; 2) the tools for composing (working on different computers); and 3) an issue that relates very much to the first two: the scale/size of a Prezi--its physical location on the computer screen.

Firstly, when I write, I re-read my work back to myself so many times I could easily recite it. Seriously. This, I think, is what makes me the worst editor for my own work but, I think, it also usually strengthens my writing in other ways. This re-reading process was practically impossible on Prezi simply because of the ways in which Prezi doesn't allow you to delete paths very easily. That is, as I was writing, I either had to link all of my ideas up or leave them unlinked, which makes editing order very strange. Anyway, I have found ways to adjust by constantly linking and unlinking and relinking and...but it has been quite frustrating at times.

Another issue I had was that I found working on my Prezi on my tiny notebook to be near impossible. When I first stared experimenting with Prezi I though, "no way can I do this...this is way too clunky;" yet, oddly enough, I had much less trouble working on my desktop. I'm wondering if this experience has uncovered what I don't know about the slight differences between mac and pcs...hopefully I'll figure this out as I continue to work...

Lastly, my Prezi, right now, is all over the map (canvas). Seriously, it is pretty crazy. I've even lost some pieces of text. This will definitely take some work in thinking in new ways about presenting arguments spatially.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what you've all created over the weekend! That's all I have for now...