Unit Four - Blog Assignment

          The healthcare system is complex and making smart decisions related to our health can be difficult without having an education or background in the healthcare field.  There is an increasing awareness of the need for health literacy and finding ways to empower individuals to make good choices related to their health. 

Health information is a prominent thing today and can be found just about everywhere from television, to magazines, to billboards.  The internet is a huge resource for health information but is a concern if the reader does not thoroughly understand what they are reading.  There are many sites in which individuals give their personal advice or blog about their past experiences.  This can be confusing and worrisome when facing a health dilemma, and can be detrimental in the choices a consumer makes regarding his or her health and treatments.   “More than 5.5 million Americans search the internet for health topics every single day, and a majority of patients head online as their first source of health- or medication- related information”(Cochrane).

Cochrane blogged, “According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy Study, 87% of US adults don’t have the skills they need to manage their health and prevent disease.”; however, a fellow blogger refuted the accuracy of this number. Whatever the “real” percentage is, health literacy is a subject that all healthcare professionals and consumer should be concerned with and be willing to band together to improve the health outcomes in our country. 

Cochrane, Zara Risoldi. “Health Literacy: Are you smarter than a web page?”. 09 March 2011. Discover. 09 March 2011. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2011/03/09/health-literacy-are-you-smarter-than-a-web-page/

Unit Three – Blog Assignment

The evolution of the written book is an important piece of the history of mankind and one that should be considered by all fans of the new wave of electronic mediums.  Through many centuries the written book has developed into a integral part of our society but, the electronic revolution is threatening that.    The downward spiral of the printed book is a bit disconcerting to me.

            Centuries ago oral interpretations of stories where translated to paper  to preserve the tales for future generations.  This can be contributed to the lost  art of storytelling, however, it extended accessability to such stories.  A book written on paper is easily toted and  allows the reader to enjoy its content wherever he or she might be; lying in bed, on an airplane, on the beach. 

            The recent advances in electronic mediums, such as Kindle, Nook and IPad  have certainly increased “totability” and accessability to some extent but cannot compare to a “real” book; how it feels in your hands, how it sounds, how it smells.  Bringhurst writes that he is affected by “the sight of librarians students, teachers, and academic administrators leaping onto the bandwagon, assuming that all knowledge is going to fit, and even to flourish, in a single kind of container and the newest sort of container must be the best.”(2008)    Why is it better just because its new?  That is a question we should all ask ourselves.  The point made in Bringhurst’s article about how books have “made forrests disappear and landfills grow” can be considered valid but, where will all of the outdated electronic “containers” end up?  They are not biodegradebale like books and the highest probability is they will end up in our landfills too.   

            Advances continue in the electronic mediums and don’t seem to be slowing down; hopefully, our beloved books will withstand the new generation of technology and remain an accessible part of our history.

(Hyatt, 2007)

Works Cited

Bringhurst, Robert. “Why There Are Pages and Why They Must Turn”. 1 September 2008. World Literature Today. 26 February 2011. http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=6&sid=7e53180d-e44a-4596-97ba-c545b7a56eaa%40sessionmgr11&vid=2

Hyatt, Michael. “Whey Traditional Books Will Eventually Die”. 20 November 2007.  Michael Hyatt International Leadership. 26 February 2011. < http://michaelhyatt.com/why-traditional-books-will-eventually-die.htm>

Unit Two - Blog Assignment

     Both arguments related to school officials right to regulate student’s off-campus blogging make persuasive points, however, it should not be the role of school officials to monitor and punish students for off campus activities such as blogging.  Students should have the right to speak their minds, whether it have a positive or negative connotation.    

     In the Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Comm. School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969) case the judge declared  “In our system, state-operated schools may not be enclaves of totalitarianism. School officials do not possess absolute authority over their students.”[1]  All citizens of the United States are protected under the Bill of Rights to have freedom of speech and have the right to verbalize or document their ideas and opinions.   

     In a posting from the Blog of the National Coalition Against Censorship website they discussed a  “recent decision of student journalists at Faribault High School to move their newspaper, the Echo, online after it was shut down by the district superintendent.  The superintendent shut down the newspaper after students refused to comply with the superintendent’s request to review an article prior to publication.  Instead, students decided to form their own online newspaper, which is not funded by the school.”[2]  This is a good example of students being able to make their voices heard without being under the discriminatory thumb of the school officials.

     On the other end of the spectrum, it is understood, and rightly so, that personal opinions and pranks can lead to adverse reactions from those individuals who are part of the subject matter.  This is not a new concept that has begun since the technology wave and will extend beyond the next phase of communication and expression.  It is an unfortunate human nature to judge and become jealous of others which often leads to one acting out in some form or another in attempts to make the targeted individual, group or organization look bad.  Bullying and practical jokes have been a part of classroom rhetoric for centuries.  Unfortunately, these actions can lead to extremely adverse reactions.  Cyber bullying should not be condoned in any sense of the matter but should not be regulated through the educational institutions.  Students must learn, sometimes the hard way, that they must be accountable for their actions.  These extreme cases should be left up to the local authorities to regulate and prosecute if necessary.  Parents play the most important role in instilling morals in their children and teaching them about consequences for bad behavior or poor judgment.  Making mistakes and being  punished for the ones that are offensive and harmful is a part of a young individual’s rite of passage and how they truly learn how to be a productive and positive contributor to our society. 

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[1] Hudson, David L. Blogging.

New York, NY, USA: Chelsea House, 2008. p 66.

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/sooner/Doc?id=10284452&ppg=67

[2] Zeidel, Rebecca. “Student newspapers move off campus and online: good news and bad news”.  Weblog posting. Blog of the National Coalition Against Censorship. 09 January 13. Blogging Censorship from the National Coalition Against Censorship. http://ncacblog.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/student-newspapers-move-off-campus-and-online-good-news-bad-news/.

My Thoughts on George Orwell’s, "Politics and the English Language”

Orwell was trying to point out how writing has evolved into a competition of who can include the most words in a sentence without ever really getting the true point of the meaning across. Using simple descriptive words is easier for the reader to grasp and visualize what the writer is trying to convey.

I came across a great example of what Orwell was talking about. I was utterly confused, and a bit offended, by the time I finished this critique of a well loved cartoon.

The oppressive humor archetype


The pop-art (yet neo-minimalist) etchings of Ziggy and Family Circus, both liegemen to the Lichtensteinian legacy, question their own raison d'etre. Are they visual tropes? Are they self-conscious (self-mocking/self-loathing) po-mo nombrilisme? Or are they simply (and solely) stochastic snapshots sans lexical basis? The Family Circus series can best be examined as artistic interventions against the oppressive humor archetype, whereas the unappealingly desperate musings of Cathy Guisewite's eponymous series are truly indebted to Jenny Holzer's oeuvre. Or, as Baudrillard and Guillaume so succinctly state, "What is produced with the romantic turn…is…the…play of…masculine hysteria…of …sexual paradigms that once again must be reinserted in the more general and universal context of a change in the paradigms of otherness."[1]
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[1] Jean Baudrillard and Marc Guillaume, Figures de l'alterite. Paris: Descartes et Cie., 1994

Rezac, Richard. "The Winner of PORT's 1st Annual Pretentious Art Writing Contest." PORT 17 June 2006. 22 January 2011 <http://www.portlandart.net/archives/2006/06/the_winner_of_p.html>.

 

I think Orwell's argument is that writing is evolving into proving one's intelligence by injecting "big" words at the attempt to sound well educated and impressive. His argument is persuasive in the fact it makes you think about what you are writing and how the reader will interpret it. It doesn't have to be fancy to be effective.

The First Post

Well, this is officially my first blog post.  I look forward to the blogging adventure!