What is a national literature? That is the question we will focus on in American Literature I.

As we learn about the foundations and roots of American literature, we will discover that much of our tradition is borrowed from other cultures. Our own identity as a national literature doesn’t surface until after the American Civil War.

Certainly, a course in American Literature will focus on all of the appropriate time periods. In American Literature I we generally start with the Puritans, move on to the Age of Reason, hop over to the Romantic period, glide on over to the Transcendentalists, and then move toward the subject matter of American Literature II (Realism, Naturalism, Early 20th C, Modernism, American Drama, Harlem Renaissance, Late 20th C, and Post-Modernism).

Sadly, the canon is only just recognizing the national literature of the time before - - the time before the Puritans. The peoples of the American continent had a tradition; they used the oral tradition. It is here, in the stories of the Native Americans, where we will begin our journey.

We will begin by looking at the work of Paul Reuben. I would like for you to read this overview and bibliography. I am reprinting it below for those of you who might like to hear it, as well.

Citation: Reuben, Paul P. “Chapter 1: Early American Literature to1700 - Native American Oral Literatures.” PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. WWW URL: http://web.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap1/native.html (April 30, 2007).

Andrew Wiget is a distinguished scholar in this field - note the bibliographical entries below. Here are some of his comments:

Culture is a system of beliefs and values through which a group of people structure their experience of the world. By working with this definition of culture, which is very close to the way current criticism understands the impact of ideology upon literature, we can begin to pluralize our notion of the world and understand that other peoples can organize their experience in different ways, and dramatize their experience of the world through different symbolic forms.

If culture is a system of beliefs and values by which people organize their experience of the world, then it follows that forms of expressive culture such as these (creation) myths should embody the basic beliefs and values of the people who create them. These beliefs and values can be roughly organized in three areas: (1) beliefs about the nature of the physical world; (2) beliefs about social order and appropriate behavior; and (3) beliefs about human nature and the problem of good and evil.

Both the Zuni story and the Iroquoian story of the origins of the confederacy also talk about how society should be organized, about the importance of kinship and families, about how society divides its many functions in order to provide for healing, for food, for decision making, and so on. The Iroquoian confederacy was a model of Federalism for the drafters of the Constitution, who were much impressed by the way in which the confederacy managed to preserve the autonomy of its individual member tribes while being able to manage effective concerted actions, as the colonists to their dismay too often found out. The Navajo story of Changing Woman and the Lakota story of White Buffalo Calf Pipe Woman are important illustrations not only of the role of women as culture heroes, but also of every people’s necessity to evolve structures such as the Pipe Ceremony or the Navajo healing rituals to restore and maintain order in the world.

The Raven and Hare narratives are stories about a Trickster figure. Tricksters are the opposite of culture heroes. Culture heroes exist in mythology to dramatize prototypical events and behaviors; they show us how to do what is right and how we became the people who we are. Tricksters, on the other hand, provide for disorder and change; they enable us to see the seamy underside of life and remind us that culture, finally, is artificial, that there is no necessary reason why things must be the way they are. If there is sufficient motivation to change things, Trickster provides for the possibility of such change, most often by showing us the danger of believing too sincerely that this arbitrary arrangement we call culture is the way things really are. When Raven cures the girl, for instance, he does so to gain her sexual favors, and in so doing calls into question the not-always-warranted trust that people place in healing figures like doctors. The Bungling Host story, widespread throughout Native America, humorously illustrates the perils of overreaching the limits of one’s identity while trying to ingratiate one’s self.

Perhaps the most important thing that needs to be done is to challenge students’ notions of myth. When students hear the word “myth,” they succumb to the popular belief that mythology is necessarily something that is false. This is a good place to start a discussion about truth, inviting students to consider that there are other kinds of truth besides scientific truth (which is what gave a bad name to mythology in the first place). Consider this definition of myth: “The dramatic representation of culturally important truths in narrative form.” Such a definition highlights the fact that myths represent or dramatize shared visions of the world for the people who hold them. Myths articulate the fundamental truths about the shape of the universe and the nature of humanity.

It is also important to look at important issues of form such as repetition. Repetition strikes many students as boring. Repetition, however, is an aesthetic device that can be used to create expectation. Consider the number three and how several aspects of our Euro-American experience are organized in terms of three: the start of a race (”on your mark, get set, go”); three sizes (small, medium, and large); the three colors of a traffic signal; and of course, three little pigs. These are all commonplace examples, so commonplace, in fact, that initially most students don’t think much of them. But there is no reason why we should begin things by counting to three. We could count to four or five or seven, as respectively the Zunis, the Chinooks, and the Hebrews did. In other words, these repetitions have an aesthetic function: they create a sense of expectation, and when one arrives at the full number of repetitions, a sense of completeness, satisfaction, and fulfillment.

We begin our journey in British literary history in the Anglo-Saxon period, also called the Old English period. Beowulf is the best known story of this period, and is the oldest text of literature in the English language. This period is known for oral traditions of literature. The use of storytelling has lasted and been passed down through generations. Poetry is the dominant form. A strong belief in the concepts of fate colored the writings of the time, and there was a lot of discussion about origins and a lot of contention between the church and the pagan worlds. Of course, Christianity is relatively new, seeing that it’s only 449 AD. The Anglo-Saxon period lasts until 1066. As such, Christianity was relatively new to the world. This cultural and religious clash, combined with constant quest for land, provided themes based in the heroic tradition. The stories glorified heroic warriors who prevailed in battle. Further, the tales were didactic in nature and taught some type of lesson. The conflicts between worldviews are obvious, but it is important to note, that the surviving tales all exist on the side of Christians. Who knows what the other side had to tell?

This is where we start our exploration of British literature, and from that period, we’ll move on to the medieval period. Also called the Middle English period, the medieval period begins in about 1066 and lasts to 1485 AD. This period is also known for the use of oral tradition, folk ballads, mystery and miracle plays, and romances. The Medieval Age has remained popular today, and we can certainly see its popularity in Second Life and at real life historical reenactments. It is likely that the code of chivalry and honor or the rumors of figures like King Arthur and Lancelot are the basis for the popularity of the period. Of course, the texts are didactic and Christianity prevails. However, corruption, greed, and lust often snuck into the literary works to demonstrate that these vices, while not encouraged, flourished in the culture.
In the British Literature Classroom Media Lab, you can view a student presentation on what chivalric customs would be like in today’s society. You can also read Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Lady of Shallot on the first floor, and listen to two interpretations of it in the media lab. The beauty of the period often masks the darker side of the period, and our job, as students, is to see the real through the smoke of fantasy.

We will, of course, explore the Canterbury Tales. In Second Life, we will go on a similar trek and will invite the world to join us. The idea is to understand the art of storytelling as it applied to Chaucer and the difficulty of creating didactic texts in the face of criticism.

The third period we will cover is the Renaissance that begins in about 1485 and lasts until the 1660’s. In Second Life, we will use the Renaissance classroom to discover some of the important texts and conflicts of the time. We will stage interpretations of Othello, as well. While many people associate Queen Elizabeth I and Shakespeare with the period known as the Renaissance, it is important to note that this period lasted more than a 1000 years. So, it is inaccurate and unjust to reduce the period to those two figures. Further, we will discover that there is a bit of controversy surrounding the identity of Shakespeare.

The Renaissance, as an over arching period, is a shift in worldview. The focus on religion is now starting to sway toward an understanding and acceptance of scientific theory. Whereas human nature was doomed in the former literary periods, this period expresses a focus on human life on earth, humanity on earth and the idea that humans can be molded and shaped into new and better things. Some popular themes include carious types of love including courtly love and lost love. The most popular genres, of course, are poetry and drama.

The Neo-Classical period, or the Restoration, begins in about 1660 and lasts until about the late 1790’s. This is a time period of a complete reversal. We’re no longer focusing on religion. Now we’re focusing on reason and logic. The works are emphasizing stability between harmony and wisdom. The social contract and the government begin to over power the authority of the church. There is a lot of upheaval in the government because now people are expecting life, liberty and property as fundamental or natural rights. Of course satire is very popular, poetry remains popular, essays, letters, diaries, biographies and novels start coming into the forefront of literary texts. Satire, as a dominant form, becomes the richest gift of this period. In Second Life, we will try to express the satiric through interactive presentations of the texts of this period.

We have a lot to cover in 6 weeks, but we will have many opportunities to share and discuss these authors and genres. By using the British Literature Classroom in Second Life, we will be able to experience some culture as we delve into these texts. The visuals of this London mansion will, undoubtedly, help to raise these authors from dusty pages.

Discussions for this course are held every Monday from 9-10 P M Eastern Standard Time (E S T). There will also be a Sunday series from 8-9 P M E S T for students in all sections of L C C C literature and for those participating in the at-large extension series.

Mary Shelley crafted a masterpiece that would set the foundation for modern horror. In the novel Frankenstein, Shelly wrote, “”You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been.” My fear is that both the seeking and the serpent have been tossed by the wayside. In Moby Dick, Herman Melville wrote that “All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever present perils of life.” Will our collective apathy be the halters that bind us?

Studying literature is a bit like resurrecting the dead or breathing new life into creatures that have yet to exist. You are enrolled in a class because you need a grade so that you can graduate. To some, this journey is one of simplicity; they want the assignments, and they are only looking for the resounding stamp of academic approval before moving forward to the next task, the next class, and, finally, to the ultimate parchment that will lead to stability.

The thirst for knowledge, some believe, has been stifled by technology. I do not agree. Knowledge is, in itself, a kind of thirst, and one that isn’t quenched with grades. Technology is only one way to explore a cave, but it is an increasingly popular method. The ease of its applications allow for us to explore literature more fully. We now have more tools to help us; we can experience levels that we never knew imaginable.

As you approach this class, take a moment to pause. Yes, we both recognize you are simply on a path to parchment. But, since you have to be here anyway, why not take a moment to explore? Why not pause? Why not seek knowledge or passion?

Time can only tell if the “serpent will sting you” and only experience can tell you if that is good or bad. But, we all know of the “halters” that bind us, and, as we might discover, apathy may be the worst one yet.

Welcome! This summer will prove to be an exciting adventure for many of us!

My name is Beth Ritter-Guth, and I teach FT at Lehigh Carbon Community College in Schnecksville, PA. I use an open access course format to deliver content material, and want to take a few minutes to explain what it is I mean by the term “open access.”

In order to receive college credit for the courses I teach at LCCC, one must register through the college website at www.lccc.edu. Since these courses are offered completely online, anyone living anywhere can take them. The advantage to taking the course for credit is that you receive feedback and assessment from me, you received transferable grades, and you receive credit through a Middle State Accredited college.

However, I firmly believe in the opening of education to all populations, Perhaps you don’t need college credit or don’t have the time to invest in a course, but really want to learn about and discuss a certain piece of literature. Open Access allows you to do that because you participate as an “at-large” member. This means that you are welcome to do all of the readings and assignments and participate in the discussions of the course, but are not required to do any or all of the work. MIT is the leader in Open Courseware, and this model is much like theirs. Harvard used a similar model in Second Life, and we will be adopting their approach for courses using SL as an enhancement tool.

While participation in SL is not required to have access to the course materials, we will be having live chats in SL about the texts of each course. Please create a free account at www.secondlife.com.

What steps should you take to get involved?

1. Take a look at the courses being offered this summer at http://collegeenglish.wikispaces.com/ritterguthclasses
2. If you want college credit for the courses, please register at www.lccc.edu
3. If you do not want college credit, please email BethRitterGuth@gmail.com to be registered in the at large group.

Here is an update on my Second Life experiment — A spring semester class in SL.

As the folks at Linden Labs say, Second Life offers almost unlimited potential for using simulations to prepare for real-world experiences in a safe environment - to enhance experiential learning, allow individuals topractice skills, try new ideas, and learn from their mistakes.

To that end, I used SL simulations in my Online Journalism (JRN-410) class in the Spring 2007 semester here at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

I had 13 students enrolled in my course and exploring the SL world. Their goal was to identify prospective subjects for feature stories to be published by the class in its “traditional” Web news magazine called Brave News World. That magazine is in its third year and this was the first time its subject matter focused on another virtual world. The students were excited by the thought of one virtual world covering another in a mass media project for the real world.

The class was diverse, including Native Americans, African Americans and Hispanic Americans as well as other Caucasian students. Many of the students have very poor technology at home and limited access to broadband services. The wireless broadband technology in the classroom was vital to the
success of this pedagogical project.

I found the trade paperback Second Life: The Official Guide by Michael Rymaszewski, Wagner James Au, Mark Wallace, and Catherine Winters, to be a well-rounded resource for the class. It’s not an expensive text at around $25 from online retailers.

I also asked students to locate and write abstracts of four relevant articles about SL in consumer and trade periodicals.

To carry out the project, students enthusiastically climbed what for some of them was a steep learning curve into the SL world. After a period of exploring for familiarization, they individually identified possible article coverage of several unusual and interesting areas of social, cultural, political and commercial life. They proceeded to locate reporting resources including SL residents to interview, places to investigate, and sites to photograph.

The classroom activity was highly interactive and employed peer learning. In addition, their excitement with the project promoted a great deal of peer support outside of class. Students brought back to class news of many experiences they shared while exploring the SL world with each other.

As but one important example among many that reveal SL’s impact on my teaching, I have found the simulations provide wonderful opportunities for interview experiences. People in SL appear as graphic avatars on screen, of course. However, there are real people with real aspirations behind those avatars, so their responses to interviewers are real and variable.

Students learned how to form relevant questions and employ feedback. For instance, one class member may log on while the others watch via overhead projection. They seek an interviewee. As the student who is logged on engages the interviewee, the class discusses and proposes relevant questions to be posed. I have the opportunity to act as guide and mentor as they develop their interviewing skills. Out side of class time, students practiced their interviewing skills with other SL residents.

Another important example among many is the photojournalism aspect of this experience. Photojournalism is about people, places and things, and Second Life is teeming with those. Real-world photojournalists record the human condition in good times and bad. My students did that using the Snapshot feature in the SL Viewer to illustrate the articles they wrote. SL was a visual adventure in which they learned the basic visual and technical aspects of “seeing” photos and recording images.

Journalistic publication was the ultimate goal of the semester project. The students wrote proposals for my review of their planned articles. With those approved, they submitted outlines showing their planned organization of articles. Ultimately, they wrote at least three separate articles based on journalistic research and interviewing in-world. Some eagerly write as many as six.

Articles were evaluated on three concurrent spectra - content, organization and mechanics. These parallel tracks ranged from weak to strong.

Even as they dug up and reported stories from SL, the same students were learning how to prepare what now has become a traditional Web site for their magazine. Eventually the Spring 2007 issue of Brave News World was produced with than 40 feature stories about social, cultural, political and commercial aspects of SL as written and edited by the students.

Business management interested some class members who worked overtime to add a simultaneously-published Second Life edition of Brave News World. They repurposed the Web magazine for circulation inside SL. To that end they designed newspaper-style vending boxes and figured out where to place them across the SL world. They wished for more text styling in Notecards — color, bold and italic type — and embedded art.

Class members were intensely motivated to complete this project, even to the extent that they Photoshop’ed a group photo of all 13 avatars standing in front of a well-known RL campus building for the Web magazine. I will send the magazine URL to this list in a subsequent e-mail.

In summary, I agree with Linden Labs when they say that Second Life provides a tremendous opportunity for controlled experimentation, instruction and guidance in a presentation mode available for individual instruction or to an entire class at the same time. SL is an exciting new place for distance learning, educational collaboration, etc. It is useful as a platform for virtual classrooms, research into new concepts, and real-time communication among multiple participants.

I am planning to deliver other courses in SL in the future and establish a UNCP outpost in the campus region.

#03. Podcast featuring Beth Ritter-Guth Location: Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, US.

Download Direct Here

“…scripting a life size model of the International Space Station… bring in real-time telemetry and state vector data into second life to have real-time operability of an autonomous rover.” http://colab.arc.nasa.gov/node/29

Second Life is building up an image – problem in education, what to do

The discussion about SL; its sex, its drugs, its rock and roll (SDR) and not to forget gaming, is the same as we had in 1995, in the breakthrough of what we now would call web 1.0. I’d rather speak of programmable web than of web 2.0 but that is a different discussion. So let us not get too excited about the flat representation in the global media about SL. Because of this media – attention, focused on the darker sides of life, SL is building up an image problem.

For us educators that is awkward because in our colleges and universities the adversaries will use this attention as an argument against experimenting with it! That is a difficult problem to tackle. The best way is to keep mentioning the facts, preferably those that counter and /or match the ones used in the media at the moment.

SL is hype, sex is business in SL and therefore sex in SL gets more attention than education, as it would anywhere. The media are fairly hypocritical in mentioning the SDR - triangle in a new environment like SL, while they stopped writing about the same SDR - triangle in Real Life. The first is news, the second is everyday life. On the other hand my tours show that most of what happens in SL is very common as it is in everyday life in RL. OK, we can do things some of us cannot afford in RL, but we would be able to. I mention: laying in the ho ttub, taking a balloon flight, fly your own helicopter, dive in the ocean, etc. I haven’t seen somebody mowing the lawn so far! So let’s face it. In one way SL is very different to RL, you can do things you hardly get to or are unable to in RL In another way it resembles RL when it comes to do those things we are all occupied with every day of our life. Including sex!

Education has not shown much change over the past 200 years when it comes to free learning from the boundaries of schools. So far education has not shown much change in SL either, at least from what I have seen. Most universities, colleges, educational projects, consultants building a campus show little real activity so far and I am not convinced at all that many present initiatives will become successful projects in SL.

I would like to share some lessons learned with you

I did best practice research between 1994 and 2002, not accidentally coinciding with the development of the WWW. Doing that, I found out that good projects or initiatives had some characteristics in common. I will share them with you here. All projects that were/are successful in the sense that it attracted much attention by not only managers, students and teacher but also by policymakers and administration have or do:

Charisma: Hard to define, but well described by Dany Jacobs as the WOW – factor. The wanna-do/wanna-have aspect of projects that attracts people like honey does bees. In some cases it is the hidden promise like in The Brain, the visualization tool for concept – development or advanced searching. Sometimes the brilliant combination, the mashup, we would say now between to successful technologies like Lego and ICT in Mindstorms. Sometimes the simplicity as in the Mobile Inquiry Technology – project and to finish this round up the impressive educational and philosophical concept behind it as in Bereiters and Scardameglia’s Knowledge Forum. It is also good to keep in mind that relevance to the society, not just limited to education, is an important factor for success.

Focus: Almost always there is a mismatch between the granularity of the solution and that of the educational problem. In other words we use an elephant foot to kill a mouse. Most educational ICT projects aim to solve problems like contact hours, lack of communication, access to relevant learning materials and 7/24 coaching. Successful projects focus on one or maybe two problems to solve and succeed in focusing on that. The owners found a way to cope with all those around that whisper: wouldn’t it be nice if we at the same time and as we are doing this also………….. Examples are the Digital Library Project, Intersect en the Modus – project. Trying to solve one specific or generic problem and doing that right, continuously and persistent.

Think big, start small: Not to be explained, but often ignored. The Jason – project is a good example of that approach, but there are dozens, if not hundreds of them. And of course, there is also luck to it, and in most cases continuous funding or ROI.

Direct transfer or interaction with the educational environment in, what we would call now, Real Life. Best examples are hands – on initiatives, not seldom by a teacher with a class from Monday till Friday. What about Cybercast and Contrasting Cases, are they or were they not excellent in their practicality? Interdisciplinarity is also important as projects that involve teams in projects, rather than focused on subjects seem more successful too.

Enduring ficancial commitment. A lot of projects start with one or two very driven individuals and sometimes put their private live at stake to follow their dream. That situation will not last long and it will finish when they, sometimes literally drop. Successful projects have, almost from day one, a sound financial perspective. It is either very cheap to do or it has the money to last or to become self supporting.

Now what if we question the present projects in Second Life, to what extent would they score in a scale of 1 to 5 to these criteria? Which projects come in mind and how would we best present them to our peers and managers?

Looking forward to your reaction.

I made a post on my personal blog last month about the importance of transparency in a relationship, this was inspired from one of my friends Christopher Penn.

I’ve always been a fan of openness particularly in educational circles, yet still I find many educators are more closed than people working outside of the sector. This is worrying and should be addressed at many levels.

We are now operating in a new-media world, the old school mentality of “knowledge is power” in so much as “it’s mine, I have it and you don’t” has gone. Academics who hold on to this will fall beside the wayside and simply get left behind. The reason being that nobody will trust you, nobody will believe you, you will not develop a medium of reaching your audience in the new-world.

Old fashioned media was based on the concept of large print houses, the commercial value being the physical size of the print house and the physical size of the distribution network it could maintain, based on the physical size. If they wanted to reach more people, they needed more print house space for more copies, more staff, more delivery people.

This is changing and changing fast.

We no longer need the big print houses to distribute, you can distribute yourself right now, you can tell the world, you can voice your opinion more easily that ever before.

BUT, you must build your network well, you must build your own network(s) of believers, people who trust you, and follow you, if you are not transparent it will not work.

This then is a call to being as transparent as possible in all your endeavours, if you give give give, you will get get get. Why are you spending so much time writing an academic paper for a closed audience, when you could be publishing on a blog and multiplying your audience, AND, having them comment on your work easily. You never know you may even make a new friend, and learn something.

Are you lecturing a subject, why not blog it too? Practise it, share share share.

I recently attended a podcamp un-conference, and this is the best get together I have ever been on, this blows academic conferences right out of the water. And why? Because people were open, transparent, I trusted them, they shared knowledge openely and willingly.

Check out that conference report here (it is SecondLife related)

Comments encouraged

Avatar Academics: Is virtual reality the next frontier for universities? Some of the most famous names in education — including UCLA — are teaching in cyberspace.

Something of a generic “What is this?!” article. It give a good overview of initiatives in California universities.

“Just this past January, the UCLA Library set up shop inside SL, becoming the sixth major library to do so. (All told, there are about 370 library staff in SL, and another 880 or so “friends” of that virtual group.) The library plans to exhibit UCLA’s extensive digital collections, including an archive of local, state and federal electoral campaign materials over the decades that affect the Los Angeles area. UCLA’s virtual library will also provide Web links to an array of its existing services, resources and tips aimed at enhancing the academic success of graduate and undergraduate students.”