At the time of this writing, the following preliminary results have been gathered for my study:
Of the twelve people who have currently completed the survey, seven were white females, two white males, two black males and one black female.
Preliminary data:
Writer 1
Race--25% correct and most 36% not sure at all
Age--18% correct and most 42% not sure at all
Gender--92% correct, and most 42% not sure at all
Writer 2
Race-- 8% correct and 58% not sure at all
Age--33% correct and 50% pretty sure
Gender--92% incorrect, and most 33% were pretty sure
Writer 3
Race--75% correct and most 42% not sure at all
Gender--75% correct and most 42% kind of sure
Age--33% correct and most 42% not sure at all
Writer 4
Race--75% correct and 58% not sure at all
Age--42% correct and most 42% kind of sure
Gender--67% incorrect and 33% pretty sure
Writer 5
Race--58% correct and 58% not sure at all
Gender--92% correct and 8% positive
Age--67% incorrect and 42% not sure at all
Writer 6
Race--58% correct but most 58% not sure at all
Age--75% correct but 58% not sure at all
Gender--75% incorrect and most 42% kind of sure
Writer 7
Race--67% incorrect and 67% not sure at all
Age--50% correct and 33% not sure at all, kind of sure and pretty sure
Gender--75% correct and 50% kind of sure
Writer 8
Race--73% correct but 55% were sure at all
Age--82% incorrect but 64% pretty sure
Gender--55% correct and 36% pretty sure
Writer 9
Race--73% correct but 55% not sure at all
Age—Most, 45% correct and 45% were pretty sure
Gender--73% incorrect and most 36% pretty sure
Writer 10
Race--Most, 50% correct but 50% (most) not sure at all
Age--58% incorrect and 42% pretty sure
Gender--100% correct and 25% positive
Participants were most accurate when guessing the gender of the writers. Despite the accuracy of their guesses, participants were still unsure of their guesses. Interestingly, two of the three male writers were incorrectly guessed as female and the participants were much more confident in their guesses. Participants were almost as accurate when guessing the race of the writers, although they were much less sure of their guesses. The participants were least accurate in guessing the age of the writers, but described more confidence in their guesses.
These preliminary results align with previous research. DeAndrea, D; Shaw, A. and Levine, T. (2010) found no significant differences in the way different races represent themselves on their Facebook pages. Like the DeAndrea et al. study, the writers chosen were solicited from the friends of one Facebook profile, suggesting that there may be some similarity in the personality, writing style and other factors among the writers and that these similarities override any racial differences. The seemingly homogenous group chosen for the study may contribute to the difficulty in discerning race through the text provided. The results of the participants’ attempts to guess the race of the writers, although accurate, revealed a low level of confidence in their guesses. These results seem to challenge Szpara, M.Y. & Wylie, E.C. (2007) findings that all the African American participants had identifiable features of African American English. The uncertainty of the participants when guessing the writers’ races could be contributed to a lack of obvious African American English features and other stereotypically ethnic writing features.
Two mini-interviews were conducted while the participants completed the survey. Attempting to guess the race of writer 4, a participant asked “What is Sons of Anarchy?,” referencing the post provided by the writer, and asked if there characters on the show were white. This question suggested that this participant, a 33 year old black male, was relying on context to determine the race of the writer and possibly age and gender as well. During the second interview, a 50 year old black female revealed difficulty and frustration with guessing accurately. “I’m not good at this kind of thing,” she stated, suggesting that the demographic information revealed by the posts was not obvious.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Facebook, digital writing and cultural identity
In the study Online Language: The role of culture in self-expression and self-construal on Facebook,the authors examined Facebook pages as a method of identity construction and self expression. Basing their hypotheses upon the results of similar studies, the researchers used the text from the social networking site to explore how the influence of culture on self-construal and self-expression is reflected in language, and to determine if there are differences between Caucasian, African-American and ethnic Asian users.
120 Facebook pages were examined with 60 belonging to males and 60 belonging to females, and with 40 belonging to Caucasians, 40 belonging to Asians,and 40 belonging to African-Americans. All participants were solicited through one Facebook profile belonging to a student at a Midwestern university. The pages were coded by trained research assistants using the following categories: physical description, social affiliation, internal expression, immediate situation,other's judgment, possession and miscellaneous.
The following hypotheses were posed and examined using the data:
African Americans were hypothesized to have a higher proportion of internal expressions, followed by Caucasians and finally Asians. The study concluded that there was no significant difference in internal expressions used by these groups. Asians were expected to have a higher level of social affiliation expressed on their pages, followed by Caucasians and finally African Americans. The study concluded that there were no significant differences in social affiliation between these groups. Contrary to the initial hypothesis, African Americans were found to have a significantly higher percentage of words indicating social interaction than Caucasians and Asians. Although not hypothesized, African Americans were found to have significantly more internalized attributes than Caucasians or Asians, who did not significantly differ from one another.
I would recommend this study to researchers studying race and digital writing. Unlike many studies on race and writing, this study focuses less on linguistic characteristics of writing that may distingush a writer's race and focuses on the content of the text composed and how that may or may not differ between races. Additionally, although the participants differed in race, the study chose a population that would assumably have similar social and personal characteristics by virtue of being related through mutual friends and being related through affiliation with the same university. I believe the selection of this population helps to validate the results, providing a measure of control for social factors such as level of education and peer association.
DeAndrea,D.; Shaw,A.and Levine,T.(2010). Online Language:The Role of Culture in Self-Expression and Self-Construal on Facebook. Journal of Language and Social Psychology. 29:425.
120 Facebook pages were examined with 60 belonging to males and 60 belonging to females, and with 40 belonging to Caucasians, 40 belonging to Asians,and 40 belonging to African-Americans. All participants were solicited through one Facebook profile belonging to a student at a Midwestern university. The pages were coded by trained research assistants using the following categories: physical description, social affiliation, internal expression, immediate situation,other's judgment, possession and miscellaneous.
The following hypotheses were posed and examined using the data:
African Americans were hypothesized to have a higher proportion of internal expressions, followed by Caucasians and finally Asians. The study concluded that there was no significant difference in internal expressions used by these groups. Asians were expected to have a higher level of social affiliation expressed on their pages, followed by Caucasians and finally African Americans. The study concluded that there were no significant differences in social affiliation between these groups. Contrary to the initial hypothesis, African Americans were found to have a significantly higher percentage of words indicating social interaction than Caucasians and Asians. Although not hypothesized, African Americans were found to have significantly more internalized attributes than Caucasians or Asians, who did not significantly differ from one another.
I would recommend this study to researchers studying race and digital writing. Unlike many studies on race and writing, this study focuses less on linguistic characteristics of writing that may distingush a writer's race and focuses on the content of the text composed and how that may or may not differ between races. Additionally, although the participants differed in race, the study chose a population that would assumably have similar social and personal characteristics by virtue of being related through mutual friends and being related through affiliation with the same university. I believe the selection of this population helps to validate the results, providing a measure of control for social factors such as level of education and peer association.
DeAndrea,D.; Shaw,A.and Levine,T.(2010). Online Language:The Role of Culture in Self-Expression and Self-Construal on Facebook. Journal of Language and Social Psychology. 29:425.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Gender Performances Online
Herring, S. C., & Martinson, A. (2004). Assessing gender authenticity in computer-mediated language use: Evidence from an identity game. Journal of Language and Social Psychology,23, 424–446.
Assessing Gender Authenticity in Computer-Mediated Language Use : Evidence From an Identity Game
In the study Assessing Gender Authenticity in Computer-Mediated Language Use : Evidence From an Identity Game, the authors Susan C. Herring and Anna Martinson, analyze how gender is represented by digital writers and how gender is perceived by readers online. Using The Turing Game, a publicly available chat environment that supports spontaneous, synchronous text chat for the purpose of “To Tell the Truth”-style identity games; the most popular of which are games about gender identity. In these gender identity games, users attempt to deceptively represent themselves as a gender opposite their own and judges attempt to guess the users’ correct gender, using only the tools of language allowed in the purely text based environment. The Turing Game can be found at the http://www.cc.gatech.edu/elc/turing/info2_5.html).
Using publicly available data from the site, the researchers analyzed the game logs, judges' ratings and debriefing chats to ascertain the users’ attempted gender performance, the judges’ assessment of authenticity of the gender performance and the users’ actual genders. Through a content analysis of this data, following research questions were considered:
• How do contestants in gender identity games present themselves? Are there differences between real-life males and real-life females, between same-sex or cross sex performances, and/or between male and female identity games?
• What aspect(s) of contestants’ self-presentation do judges attend when assessing gender authenticity? Which aspects are most important in judges’ decisions?
• How successful are contestants’ self-presentation strategies? How successful are the judges’ assessment strategies in terms of their respective goals?
The game logs revealed that contestants “produce stereotypical content when attempting to pass as the opposite gender, as well as giving off stylistic cues to their real life gender (Herring and Martinson 2004).” In turn, the judges based their assessments of gender on responses to stereotypically gendered questions as the primary strategy to assess gender, leading most often to them incorrectly guessing the users’ genders. This finding is in opposition to previous evidence that people assess gender online based solely on linguistic style. Stylistic features such as message length and word choice often reflected the users’ true gender, aligning with previous studies that concluded that writing styles are often highly gendered. The study concludes that “conventionally gendered ways of communicating are deeply embedded in people’s social identities, and that differences tend to persist even in conscious attempts to manipulate gendered language, regardless of whether others attend to them (Herring and Martinson 2004).”
As a resource to scholars studying digital writing and identity, I would recommend this article as a secondary or tertiary resource, but not a primary. Although I found the research questions well considered, I felt that the methodology used of analyzing data only from the site, limited the ability to ascertain how people assess gender. I feel that triangulation in methods would be beneficial here. I would have liked to see interviews with the judges, allowing them to elaborate on the factors that influenced their attempts to guess a users’ gender.
Assessing Gender Authenticity in Computer-Mediated Language Use : Evidence From an Identity Game
In the study Assessing Gender Authenticity in Computer-Mediated Language Use : Evidence From an Identity Game, the authors Susan C. Herring and Anna Martinson, analyze how gender is represented by digital writers and how gender is perceived by readers online. Using The Turing Game, a publicly available chat environment that supports spontaneous, synchronous text chat for the purpose of “To Tell the Truth”-style identity games; the most popular of which are games about gender identity. In these gender identity games, users attempt to deceptively represent themselves as a gender opposite their own and judges attempt to guess the users’ correct gender, using only the tools of language allowed in the purely text based environment. The Turing Game can be found at the http://www.cc.gatech.edu/elc/turing/info2_5.html).
Using publicly available data from the site, the researchers analyzed the game logs, judges' ratings and debriefing chats to ascertain the users’ attempted gender performance, the judges’ assessment of authenticity of the gender performance and the users’ actual genders. Through a content analysis of this data, following research questions were considered:
• How do contestants in gender identity games present themselves? Are there differences between real-life males and real-life females, between same-sex or cross sex performances, and/or between male and female identity games?
• What aspect(s) of contestants’ self-presentation do judges attend when assessing gender authenticity? Which aspects are most important in judges’ decisions?
• How successful are contestants’ self-presentation strategies? How successful are the judges’ assessment strategies in terms of their respective goals?
The game logs revealed that contestants “produce stereotypical content when attempting to pass as the opposite gender, as well as giving off stylistic cues to their real life gender (Herring and Martinson 2004).” In turn, the judges based their assessments of gender on responses to stereotypically gendered questions as the primary strategy to assess gender, leading most often to them incorrectly guessing the users’ genders. This finding is in opposition to previous evidence that people assess gender online based solely on linguistic style. Stylistic features such as message length and word choice often reflected the users’ true gender, aligning with previous studies that concluded that writing styles are often highly gendered. The study concludes that “conventionally gendered ways of communicating are deeply embedded in people’s social identities, and that differences tend to persist even in conscious attempts to manipulate gendered language, regardless of whether others attend to them (Herring and Martinson 2004).”
As a resource to scholars studying digital writing and identity, I would recommend this article as a secondary or tertiary resource, but not a primary. Although I found the research questions well considered, I felt that the methodology used of analyzing data only from the site, limited the ability to ascertain how people assess gender. I feel that triangulation in methods would be beneficial here. I would have liked to see interviews with the judges, allowing them to elaborate on the factors that influenced their attempts to guess a users’ gender.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Differential performance, standardized testing and race
Writing Differences in Teacher Performance Assessments: An Investigation of African American Language and Edited American English
This study sought to identify the source of racial disparity in test scores for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) portfolio assignment for the Middle Childhood/Generalist Certificate. The authors of the study begin with the hypothesis that the use of features African American Language (AAL) and Southeastern White English (SWE) may contribute to lower scores on this test. The researchers examined thirty-two written portfolio entries with 18 from African American candidates and 14 from European American candidates. These entries were coded by linguistic experts for grammatical, lexical, and discourse features and most notably for features of AAL, SWE and Speech Code Errors (SCE). The race of the writer was kept confidential to the coders.
The results revealed that the use of AAL features was found among African American candidates across all score levels and that African American candidates used both AAL and SCE more often than the European American candidates. Interestingly though, the study found that the use of AAL and SCE was not associated with high or low scores, lending support to the effectiveness of the testing body’s bias-reduction training. The researchers conclude that although this study did not reveal a bias toward non-standard English users, African American testers still received lower test scores than European Americans. Of the participants in this research, there was an approximately half-point difference in the mean scores between African American and European American participants; a finding that is consistent with results from previous participant cohorts of the same test. The researchers hypothesize that “it is possible that some of this differential performance could be due to construct-irrelevant effect of the writing features used (M.Y. Szpara & Wylie, 2007)
Although the study was inconclusive regarding whether linguistic bias against non-standard English use in standardized tests, I found this study to be a useful beginning for discourse regarding race, writing and differential performance. For my research, I find this study to be interesting because it shows that linguistic experts are very adept at identifying race in writing but questions whether the common person can do so as easily. It also questions whether having the ability to distinguish racial identity through writing creates an inherent bias against writers who are identified as a minority. As I will asking the participants of my study to attempt to identify race, age and gender through casual writing, I find this study to be a great point of comparison. As the expert linguistics in this study coded AAL and SWE features, I will be asking non-experts to identify codes that may denote the writer’s demographic categories. The comparison between the ability of experts to identify demographic information through writing and that of non-experts, I believe will determine new areas of discourse in the subjects of digital writing, race and linguistics.
Szpara, M. Y., & Wylie, E. C. (2007). Writing differences in teacher performance assessments: An investigation of African American language and edited American English. Applied Linguistics, 29(2), 244-266.
This study sought to identify the source of racial disparity in test scores for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) portfolio assignment for the Middle Childhood/Generalist Certificate. The authors of the study begin with the hypothesis that the use of features African American Language (AAL) and Southeastern White English (SWE) may contribute to lower scores on this test. The researchers examined thirty-two written portfolio entries with 18 from African American candidates and 14 from European American candidates. These entries were coded by linguistic experts for grammatical, lexical, and discourse features and most notably for features of AAL, SWE and Speech Code Errors (SCE). The race of the writer was kept confidential to the coders.
The results revealed that the use of AAL features was found among African American candidates across all score levels and that African American candidates used both AAL and SCE more often than the European American candidates. Interestingly though, the study found that the use of AAL and SCE was not associated with high or low scores, lending support to the effectiveness of the testing body’s bias-reduction training. The researchers conclude that although this study did not reveal a bias toward non-standard English users, African American testers still received lower test scores than European Americans. Of the participants in this research, there was an approximately half-point difference in the mean scores between African American and European American participants; a finding that is consistent with results from previous participant cohorts of the same test. The researchers hypothesize that “it is possible that some of this differential performance could be due to construct-irrelevant effect of the writing features used (M.Y. Szpara & Wylie, 2007)
Although the study was inconclusive regarding whether linguistic bias against non-standard English use in standardized tests, I found this study to be a useful beginning for discourse regarding race, writing and differential performance. For my research, I find this study to be interesting because it shows that linguistic experts are very adept at identifying race in writing but questions whether the common person can do so as easily. It also questions whether having the ability to distinguish racial identity through writing creates an inherent bias against writers who are identified as a minority. As I will asking the participants of my study to attempt to identify race, age and gender through casual writing, I find this study to be a great point of comparison. As the expert linguistics in this study coded AAL and SWE features, I will be asking non-experts to identify codes that may denote the writer’s demographic categories. The comparison between the ability of experts to identify demographic information through writing and that of non-experts, I believe will determine new areas of discourse in the subjects of digital writing, race and linguistics.
Szpara, M. Y., & Wylie, E. C. (2007). Writing differences in teacher performance assessments: An investigation of African American language and edited American English. Applied Linguistics, 29(2), 244-266.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Written all over your blog: Gender and Writing
Baron, N. (2004) ‘See You Online: Gender Issues in College Student Use of Instant Messaging’, Journal of Language and Social Psychology 23(4): 397–423.
The field of sociolinguistics has a long history of researching and documenting gender differences in language usage and communication. Decades of research have unequivocally concluded that there are patterns of difference in female and male speech and communication styles. The linkages between gender, linguistics and writing are far less explored, with most studies examining historical documents and letters in an effort to identify gendered patterns in writing. The introduction of computer mediated communication and digital writing has added a new dimension to studies of language and gender, allowing researchers to review informal and spontaneous texts produced online to examine the role that gender may play in composition, linguistics and communication en masse.
In “See You Online,” Baron seeks create a linguistic profile of college students in the context of the online Instant Message (IM) and to identify linguistic differences patterned by gender on this medium. Focusing on lexical items, the study found that although there are commonalities between written and spoken language amongst both genders, women most often use more literary styles in their IM communications, relying on standard language conventions. Women less often use contractions, abbreviations and acronyms and men less often use emoticons in their instant messages.
I found this article useful for my study of linguistics and writing, not because it revealed any astounding conclusions about the role of gender in digital writing, but because it outlined what I feel is a solid methodology for examining text and identifying conversational and lexical patterns in written language. The research focused on conversational movements (how conversations are started, how they are ended, etc) and coded lexical items in the instant messages to weed out patterns of usage between the genders. The medium of the instant message, similar to Facebook, the medium of my intended research project, is beneficial to writing research as it places written language in an informal and spontaneous context most closely related to speech, allowing for researchers to examine the decisions writers subconsciously make without deliberation.
Despite the dated subject matter of the instant message, Baron’s study is significant in that it examines the linkages between language and gender and speech and writing and reiterates the popular language ideology that identity is a key factor in language production and demonstration. For those outside of the sociolinguistics field, this study is also significant in that it disputes the assertion that computer mediated communication removes all social aspects of identify from the user, creating a world where race and gender are erased.
The field of sociolinguistics has a long history of researching and documenting gender differences in language usage and communication. Decades of research have unequivocally concluded that there are patterns of difference in female and male speech and communication styles. The linkages between gender, linguistics and writing are far less explored, with most studies examining historical documents and letters in an effort to identify gendered patterns in writing. The introduction of computer mediated communication and digital writing has added a new dimension to studies of language and gender, allowing researchers to review informal and spontaneous texts produced online to examine the role that gender may play in composition, linguistics and communication en masse.
In “See You Online,” Baron seeks create a linguistic profile of college students in the context of the online Instant Message (IM) and to identify linguistic differences patterned by gender on this medium. Focusing on lexical items, the study found that although there are commonalities between written and spoken language amongst both genders, women most often use more literary styles in their IM communications, relying on standard language conventions. Women less often use contractions, abbreviations and acronyms and men less often use emoticons in their instant messages.
I found this article useful for my study of linguistics and writing, not because it revealed any astounding conclusions about the role of gender in digital writing, but because it outlined what I feel is a solid methodology for examining text and identifying conversational and lexical patterns in written language. The research focused on conversational movements (how conversations are started, how they are ended, etc) and coded lexical items in the instant messages to weed out patterns of usage between the genders. The medium of the instant message, similar to Facebook, the medium of my intended research project, is beneficial to writing research as it places written language in an informal and spontaneous context most closely related to speech, allowing for researchers to examine the decisions writers subconsciously make without deliberation.
Despite the dated subject matter of the instant message, Baron’s study is significant in that it examines the linkages between language and gender and speech and writing and reiterates the popular language ideology that identity is a key factor in language production and demonstration. For those outside of the sociolinguistics field, this study is also significant in that it disputes the assertion that computer mediated communication removes all social aspects of identify from the user, creating a world where race and gender are erased.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Exploring New Narratives for Online Higher Education
Thinking Ahead Commercial-University of Phoenix. 20 July 2007. YouTube. Web. 21 September 2010.
For profit colleges such as University of Phoenix are the fastest growing segments of higher education and have been for at least the last decade. Quickly surpassing traditional not for profit higher education institutions, these schools enroll and graduate more minority, women and low-income students and offer increased access to higher education through completely online degree programs. The introduction of internet technology and new social demographics into higher education technology require new metaphors to advertise and attract students to for profit education and online education, historically controversial battlegrounds in the arena of adult education. Long accused of low academic standards, questionable recruiting practices and low completion rates, and more recently the subject of government investigations targeting high student loan default rates, online and for profit education is very much still establishing its relevance to the field of higher education and its significance to culturally established ideals of success, freedom, equality, progress and enlightenment.
In the style of traditional product marketing, University of Phoenix works to establish a cultural framework for online education rooted in the prevailing narratives of technology, education, and success. In the intersection of the Selfe piece “Lest we think the revolution is a revolution” and the Lakoff and Johnson piece “Metaphors we live by”, advertising for online higher education requires the establishment of new metaphors to sell the benefits of this product, metaphors that emphasize our culturally ingrained narratives relating to technology and education while ignoring the negative aspects of the product that are contradictory to these ideals. Much like the marketing of brand new car or a luxury vacation, this University of Phoenix commercial markets online education by connecting emotions and ideals to the purchase of higher education and the benefits of technology being infused into higher education. This commercial advertises higher education and technology as life-style items, and as discussed in the Selfe piece, taps into established narratives of technology and education as increased access, the land of equal opportunity, and progress to give meaning to this new cross section of technology and higher education.
A cursory viewing of the commercial surprisingly reveals that very little of the textual and visual components directly reference education or technology. As discussed in the Lakoff and Johnson piece, the context of the commercial relies heavily on established metaphors for higher education and technology and thus little visual or textual references are needed to connect viewers to these concepts, despite the newness of the online college phenomenon. Visually the commercial takes place outside of the classroom and the accompanying text posits University of Phoenix as higher education for the “real world”. Higher education is presented in the metaphor of enlightenment and improved lifestyle. The diversity in students shown and the personalized settings feed into the narrative of technology and education as the land of equal opportunity. The commercial is set outside of the classroom, away from the computer and far from the ivory towers of elite universities. This is education for everyone, every where with gratitude being given wholly to technology. The metaphor of freedom is deeply ingrained in this commercial’s visual and textual settings. The students shown here are not bogged down by heavy textbooks, locked in a classroom or tied to a computer desk, they are in the airport, playing with children, jogging and generally enjoying life away from the classroom. The laptop is the premier technology featured in the commercial, but still a minimally used visual. In the two scenes using this technology, we see two men, one an army soldier using his laptop presumably to do homework in an airport terminal and the other man using his laptop in a darkly lit kitchen in his home. The text accompanying these images, respectively “University of boundaries are nothing” and “University of class is in session when I so choose” seek to establish the most attractive and prevailing metaphors of technology and education. Online education equals freedom and the introduction of online technology into higher education opens the user to new worlds where physical boundaries and restraints are non-existent. For textual and visual contexts, technology and namely technology in higher education empowers students to determine their own path to education.
The combination of these visual and textual components with the established narratives and developing metaphors all lend to the ideal the online higher education is a progressive form of education, one that is inclusive, enlightening, empowering and liberating for the consumer.
For profit colleges such as University of Phoenix are the fastest growing segments of higher education and have been for at least the last decade. Quickly surpassing traditional not for profit higher education institutions, these schools enroll and graduate more minority, women and low-income students and offer increased access to higher education through completely online degree programs. The introduction of internet technology and new social demographics into higher education technology require new metaphors to advertise and attract students to for profit education and online education, historically controversial battlegrounds in the arena of adult education. Long accused of low academic standards, questionable recruiting practices and low completion rates, and more recently the subject of government investigations targeting high student loan default rates, online and for profit education is very much still establishing its relevance to the field of higher education and its significance to culturally established ideals of success, freedom, equality, progress and enlightenment.
In the style of traditional product marketing, University of Phoenix works to establish a cultural framework for online education rooted in the prevailing narratives of technology, education, and success. In the intersection of the Selfe piece “Lest we think the revolution is a revolution” and the Lakoff and Johnson piece “Metaphors we live by”, advertising for online higher education requires the establishment of new metaphors to sell the benefits of this product, metaphors that emphasize our culturally ingrained narratives relating to technology and education while ignoring the negative aspects of the product that are contradictory to these ideals. Much like the marketing of brand new car or a luxury vacation, this University of Phoenix commercial markets online education by connecting emotions and ideals to the purchase of higher education and the benefits of technology being infused into higher education. This commercial advertises higher education and technology as life-style items, and as discussed in the Selfe piece, taps into established narratives of technology and education as increased access, the land of equal opportunity, and progress to give meaning to this new cross section of technology and higher education.
A cursory viewing of the commercial surprisingly reveals that very little of the textual and visual components directly reference education or technology. As discussed in the Lakoff and Johnson piece, the context of the commercial relies heavily on established metaphors for higher education and technology and thus little visual or textual references are needed to connect viewers to these concepts, despite the newness of the online college phenomenon. Visually the commercial takes place outside of the classroom and the accompanying text posits University of Phoenix as higher education for the “real world”. Higher education is presented in the metaphor of enlightenment and improved lifestyle. The diversity in students shown and the personalized settings feed into the narrative of technology and education as the land of equal opportunity. The commercial is set outside of the classroom, away from the computer and far from the ivory towers of elite universities. This is education for everyone, every where with gratitude being given wholly to technology. The metaphor of freedom is deeply ingrained in this commercial’s visual and textual settings. The students shown here are not bogged down by heavy textbooks, locked in a classroom or tied to a computer desk, they are in the airport, playing with children, jogging and generally enjoying life away from the classroom. The laptop is the premier technology featured in the commercial, but still a minimally used visual. In the two scenes using this technology, we see two men, one an army soldier using his laptop presumably to do homework in an airport terminal and the other man using his laptop in a darkly lit kitchen in his home. The text accompanying these images, respectively “University of boundaries are nothing” and “University of class is in session when I so choose” seek to establish the most attractive and prevailing metaphors of technology and education. Online education equals freedom and the introduction of online technology into higher education opens the user to new worlds where physical boundaries and restraints are non-existent. For textual and visual contexts, technology and namely technology in higher education empowers students to determine their own path to education.
The combination of these visual and textual components with the established narratives and developing metaphors all lend to the ideal the online higher education is a progressive form of education, one that is inclusive, enlightening, empowering and liberating for the consumer.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
"The Third Shift: Women Learning Online" Review
Kramarae, Cheris. "The Third Shift: Women Learning Online." American Association of University Women Foundation (2001): 39-51. Web. 14 Sep 2010.
In this section of Kamarae’s 2001 study of women in online learning contexts, she examines the social interactions of women in this format and how they may differ from men. In this section, designated as Part 4 in the study, Kamarae examines the notion that online learning, with its distance and anonymity might be the great equalizer in education, allowing for women, minorities and other socially disadvantaged persons to participate in what is often viewed as a genderless, classless, raceless and thus bias-less forum. But Kamarae quickly dismisses this notion, finding through interviews, surveys and previous studies that the social dynamics of cyberspace more often than not closely mirror those of the “real world”. She finds that certain gendered behaviors such as aggressiveness in conversation, politeness in wording and the amount of text contributed by each gender did not differ from the existing cultural stereotypes. Even in a female dominated online learning environment, men were still found to contribute much more to the online conversation and women were still found to use more instances of politeness and inclusiveness in their online discussions. In interviews with female distance education students, Kamarae found that three-fourths agreed that online learning did not eliminate issues of gendered and racialized behaviors in the classroom. In-depth interviews with both male and female participants revealed that although race, physical appearance, and gender may not be clearly evident in a non-visual online learning environment, the importance of these factors and the consideration these factors are given are not void. For example, a 24 year old graduate student wrote that she can generally tell the difference between a female student and a male student based on their writing, and for this reason, she did not believe that issues of gender bias in the classroom are eliminated in a distance learning context. I found this article to be intriguing and an interesting jumping off point for further research on the cyber-identities established by distance education students, especially women and minorities. Kamarae adequately explores the various aspects of classroom interaction and makes valid comparisons between how those interactions are changed when moving from a face-to-face to a distance context. Reviewing the article, I found that it seemed somewhat dated, considering its focus on outdated technologies such as MOOs and other types of asynchronous communication no longer as widely used. This study would certainly be a relevant and useful study to perform today, especially considering that online education has become a predominantly female, low-income and minority option for higher education as the growth of for profit institutions sky-rockets. For scholars in the fields of education, educational technology and inter-cultural communication, I would recommend this study as a starting point for important issues to be considered when examining the socio-cultural implications of learning in an online context. I would like to perform an updated version of this study and include for-profit online, low income, associate degree and certificate program students.
In this section of Kamarae’s 2001 study of women in online learning contexts, she examines the social interactions of women in this format and how they may differ from men. In this section, designated as Part 4 in the study, Kamarae examines the notion that online learning, with its distance and anonymity might be the great equalizer in education, allowing for women, minorities and other socially disadvantaged persons to participate in what is often viewed as a genderless, classless, raceless and thus bias-less forum. But Kamarae quickly dismisses this notion, finding through interviews, surveys and previous studies that the social dynamics of cyberspace more often than not closely mirror those of the “real world”. She finds that certain gendered behaviors such as aggressiveness in conversation, politeness in wording and the amount of text contributed by each gender did not differ from the existing cultural stereotypes. Even in a female dominated online learning environment, men were still found to contribute much more to the online conversation and women were still found to use more instances of politeness and inclusiveness in their online discussions. In interviews with female distance education students, Kamarae found that three-fourths agreed that online learning did not eliminate issues of gendered and racialized behaviors in the classroom. In-depth interviews with both male and female participants revealed that although race, physical appearance, and gender may not be clearly evident in a non-visual online learning environment, the importance of these factors and the consideration these factors are given are not void. For example, a 24 year old graduate student wrote that she can generally tell the difference between a female student and a male student based on their writing, and for this reason, she did not believe that issues of gender bias in the classroom are eliminated in a distance learning context. I found this article to be intriguing and an interesting jumping off point for further research on the cyber-identities established by distance education students, especially women and minorities. Kamarae adequately explores the various aspects of classroom interaction and makes valid comparisons between how those interactions are changed when moving from a face-to-face to a distance context. Reviewing the article, I found that it seemed somewhat dated, considering its focus on outdated technologies such as MOOs and other types of asynchronous communication no longer as widely used. This study would certainly be a relevant and useful study to perform today, especially considering that online education has become a predominantly female, low-income and minority option for higher education as the growth of for profit institutions sky-rockets. For scholars in the fields of education, educational technology and inter-cultural communication, I would recommend this study as a starting point for important issues to be considered when examining the socio-cultural implications of learning in an online context. I would like to perform an updated version of this study and include for-profit online, low income, associate degree and certificate program students.
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