Instructions

The purpose of this assignment is to get you used to writing in a neutral tone and to practice structuring. Each of the groups will be assigned a topic related to the class. Group #1: Blogs. Group #2: Gimp. Group #3: Wikis. Group #4: Twitter. You are to create a stub, or a short entry about the topic that has been chosen. Be ready to share these stubs with the rest of the class for discussion. Look at the readings for references to style, structure, content, and tone. After discussion, post the stubs to a group member’s blog along with ideas of how the stub can be expanded. Due by midnight on Sunday.

Wiki

Wikis are websites that allow users to add, delete and edit pages as well as the content within them. The content on a wiki is designed to be factual.

Wiki allows users to work on information collaboratively and tracks changes to the document that each user makes. Typically, wikis are self-enforced, meaning the community of users monitors and corrects errors. Most Wiki’s have a “reference” section that allows the user to navigate to a reliable source in which the information on the wiki came from.

There are many types of wikis. Wikipedia acts as a user generated web encyclopedia, while other wikis have a more specific focus for a special interest, such as Bulbapedia, which catalogues information on the Pokemon franchise. 

Expansion

This is a very surface level entry for Wikis. Expansion of the wiki on wikis should go into more detail in many subdivisions of the article. Since wikis are supposed to spiral out in complexity, this entry could expand  to include how wikis are written, what software is used, how they are formatted, how pages are linked together etc. 

Assignment by Blaine Brown, Kendall Johnson, Dawn McGinnis, Mei Chen, and Trey Chumchal

Our group assignment on Thursday was to create a meme. When I first saw this on the schedule, I was worried. I thought this meant we were going to have to edit an image using GIMP together, over the internet. This would have been very difficult to manage, and I believe many of my classmates felt the same. Numerous students asked for details of the assignment during the discussion, perhaps nervous about the upcoming challenge. I relaxed when I found out that we were simply using quickmeme.com and filling a pre-made image.

My relaxation, however, was short-lived. Once we started our breakout groups, we decided to each try and make a meme individually. The plan was to come back and discuss our creations. 

Something that should have taken moments, took tens of minutes. No one had any ideas for the meme. The sudden creativity that was thrust upon us was incredibly difficult, and many of us were surprised at that fact. This is a meme! Banal comedy written in two lines, and we all seemed incapable of creating a good one! 

We talked among ourselves in the chat, discussing the sudden difficulty to make something that seemed so easy. At which point, with the meme editor open, I simply made a joke: Philip J. Fry saying, "Not sure if this assignment is stupid, or if I'm stupid." 

The joke was a hit. It was born out of the assignment, but not in the traditional sense.  It was created spontaneously and we all took a moment to laugh because it related to our situation. Creating a meme should have been a simple endeavor but we had a hard time doing it. I believe this meme sums up how the assignment gave us a new-found respect for the use of the creative process in developing a meme.

It was a project that we thought would be simple. Although, we had other submissions of memes (included below), we chose this one because it spoke to all of us. We were a small community of people for 30 minutes, and we shared an experience of creating a meme. 

Assignment by Blaine Brown, Jessica Tusim, Laura Collmus, and Phillip Owens

Sara

• 22 years old
  
• works part-time
  
• lives on campus at ODU
  
• single
  
• full-time student
  
• no children
  

Sara is a full-time college student in her senior year at Old Dominion University. She is working part-time at a Denny’s restaurant as a waitress to help pay for student loans. She is majoring in math and hopes to be a professor at ODU one day.

She tutors other students in math in the library. She often needs to coordinate schedules via email or Facebook, and she needs quick access to the library’s operating hours and which study rooms are available.

Sara’s parents live in Chesapeake, along with her younger, 17-year-old brother. She visits them when she can get away from her busy lifestyle, and of course, on holidays.

Sara uses the internet frequently to complete classwork, to communicate with professors and other students, and for socializing. She rarely searches the web for much more than information for assignments because she feels like she reads through enough of the web for her classes. 

Quotes

“I don’t want to know all about the library’s history, I just need to know when it’s open!”

“I wish I could reserve rooms and computers online. Instead I’m always surprised to find out all the computers are in use.” 

“The search box should be on every page. When I want to look up a book, I don’t want to hunt for the search box.”

Typical web tasks:

• Facebook
  
• Twitter
  
• Class information and submitting assignments
  
• Scheduling tutoring appointments
  
• Finding lyrics to songs
  
• Reading the news
  

Assignment by Blaine Brown, Joslin Phillips, Alexia Decker, Matthew Whitley, and Dan Ivory