JAMcArthur
Physical & Digital Spaces
Spaces of Learning meet User Experience Design
Those planning construction or renovation projects for educational facilities might want to study the people using the proposed space as part of the construction and planning process. Dr. John A. McArthur makes this case in an article in the American Clearinghouse on Educational Facilities Journal. The publication, titled “Practical Lessons from User-Experience Design for Spaces of Learning,” uses information design theory to advocate for user participation in facilities improvement and management.
In the Editor’s Note, Mark Littleton writes, “John McArthur provides an eloquent discussion of user-experience design, a discussion that centers on facility design which favors spaces designed for learning over spaces designed for teaching.”
Dr. John A. McArthur is an assistant professor and director of undergraduate programs in the Knight School of Communication at Queens University of Charlotte.
Read the article – “Practical Lessons from User-Experience Design for Spaces of Learning” - in the journal’s online edition.
Voicing a Campus Icon: Twitter, a bronze goddess, and hyperlocal community engagement
Where do information design theory, digital media, and community engagment intersect? One location is on the Queens University of Charlotte campus inside a fountain in the middle of a major courtyard. That’s the home of @QueensDiana.
At the National Communication Association annual conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, I presented a paper on the hyperlocal community engagement enhanced by @QueensDiana, the Twitter page of the bronze statue Diana, Goddess of the Hunt.
My presentation surrounded the intersection between the user-experience of Diana and the sense of community created in that experience. Here are the visuals that accompanied my presentation.
If you’re interested in this topic and other case studies about the intersection of digital media and information design, look forward to our book on the topic coming out this spring.
Town Crier? Village Idiot? We each have role in public space
Town crier? Village idiot? We each have role in public spaceThis column ran in the Charlotte Observer on September 30, 2011 on the opinion/editorial page. The link above will take you to the column on the Observer’s website.
Facebook is changing the face of our private lives. The impending release of Facebook Timeline and Open Graph blurs the lines between private information and public announcements. Some critics suggest that Americans need to realize that all information shared online is public – regardless of the privacy controls we believe we have.
Next time you tweet or update your Facebook status, make a choice about who you want to be in the public space of the Internet. In our global village, are you a town crier, a costermonger, or just the village idiot?
Media theorist Marshall McLuhan suggested fifty years ago that electronics would lead us toward a global village – a world made smaller and more social by rapid advances in communication technologies. Many people believe that we now live in that small, interconnected village of loud citizens who publicize various aspects of our lives.
Sharing ourselves publicly is not a new phenomenon. In Medieval towns and villages, three types of people could often be found yelling in the streets.
The first, the town crier, was responsible for sharing the daily news. He walked the streets ringing a bell, shouting, “Oyez, Oyez!” His responsibility was to make announcements for the court, the government or other organizations considered influential by the people.
The second, the costermonger, was often known as a hawker or street vendor. She could be heard singing advertisements for her goods or trade. Whether selling strawberries, flowers, or clothing, this savvy businessperson used her voice to make a living.
The third was known around town as the village idiot. He ran through the streets making a joke or serving as one. His was the voice of the jester, the merrymaker, the town player or the buffoon.
In towns, there were also citizens. These townspeople weren’t often shouting. Instead they listened, discerning between the voices on their streets. They used their voices sparingly to join in the fun or to talk among themselves – and sometimes shout, if necessary.
In the global village, we give voice to our stories on Twitter and Facebook. We shout on YouTube and peddle our wares on eBay, Etsy, and blogs. We even identify our streets on Foursquare.
Each of us must make a choice about the voice we choose – the role we choose to play in our global village. Like the town crier, we could advance the news of the day. As a costermonger, we might be found practicing our trade. And many of us, like the village idiot, just add to the noise and festivity of our town. All of these voices can benefit the village.
However, the more important role in our global village is the one of citizen. The citizen listens, thinks, evaluates, and then joins in the discussion. My hope is that, like the citizens of the villages of old, each of us can learn to distinguish between the voices of the crier, the costermonger and the idiot. Only then can we become engaged citizens, fully participating in the global village.
John A.McArthur, Ph.D., is an assistant professor and director of undergraduate programs in the Knight School of Communication at Queens University of Charlotte. He can be reached at http://jamcarthur.com
9/11 Remembered in Memorials
This column was featured as "Share Your Own Memory" in today's Greenville News.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was sitting in a classroom on the first day of the term at Furman University. I had just finished the first course of my senior year – “Freedom in the Western Tradition” – and was settling into my second of the day – “Islam.”
The irony of that juxtaposition was not lost on me that morning.
As planes crashed in New York City, Washington, DC and a field in Pennsylvania, I watched and prayed. Two days later, as news was still developing, student leaders at Furman led a prayer vigil for our country. At our opening of school convocation, the Furman community sang a hopeful “America, the Beautiful” in place of the typical rendition of our alma mater.
A decade after 9/11, each of us can remember our feelings of shock, anger, and fear and tell the story of where we were when the news found us. When we take the time to share our stories, we memorialize the event. But the stories of those that perished in the attacks will be forever told through our national memorials.
The Pentagon’s 9/11 memorial was dedicated three years ago. 184 benches, each representing one of the lives lost at the site, jut up from the ground and hover over reflection pools. The benches are arranged along an age line – from the youngest victim aged 3 to the oldest, 71. Each is engraved with the name of the victim for whom it stands.
While facing the Pentagon, visitors see the inscriptions for those that died in the building; whereas the inscriptions for those who died aboard the plane can be read by facing the sky in the direction from which the plane travelled.
The gravel underfoot, the sound of flowing water, and the peeling paperbark maple trees at the site give the sensation that this is a place of memory, different from the area around it.
The memorials at the World Trade Center in New York City and the site of the Flight 93 crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania will be dedicated this weekend. Like the Pentagon Memorial, the two memorials to be dedicated on this solemn anniversary tell the stories of the lives lost there.
Each memorial is set apart from its surroundings, creating a place for reflection. Each shares the stories of the victims as individuals. And each creates a space designed for national remembrance.
Memorials move us from saying an independent, “I will never forget,” to declaring as a nation, “We will always remember.” They cause us to pause, to contemplate our history, and to share our own stories.
This September 11th, take the time to learn about our three national memorials and the stories of the lives they represent, reflect on the events of these last ten years, and tell your own story of remembrance.
Dr. John A. McArthur is an assistant professor in the Knight School of Communication at Queens University of Charlotte and resides in Greenville, SC. Contact Dr. McArthur at http://jamcarthur.com
“Out of the Mountain of Despair, a Stone of Hope”
As I entered the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, DC this week, I marched through the mountain of despair. Looking through the gap, all I saw was the east, the water, the promise of life greater than myself. I can only imagine that this was the designer’s intent: that we would walk through the mountain of despair with King and emerge still looking forward.
Then, by turning around, I could look back on King’s likeness and memories of his work. This turning, this remembrance, is important. But King’s eyes direct me back to the east into the water, pushing me forward, spurring me to add to his work.
King is larger than life, standing 28 feet tall and emerging from a stone. The stone that was once part of the mountain of despair has been cut free, pulled forward, and engraved. A quote on its side reads, “Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.”
His gaze is transfixed eastward across the tidal basin toward the Jefferson Memorial and Jefferson’s promise that “All men are created equal.” His back is turned toward the Lincoln Memorial, building on the nation’s progress in the fight for justice. His likeness emerges from the stone – complete, yet giving the appearance that more work can still be done.
Behind King, the arc of the memorial veers from the mountain of despair toward the Washington monument in one direction and toward the water in the other. The quotes engraved into the arc remind us that King’s legacy is one of hope, democracy, justice, and peace, reminding us that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (Letter from a Birmingham Jail).
Water flows down from the mountain of despair, and the cherry trees in the plaza – now green – will blossom anew each spring. In the darkness, the monument is washed in light from beneath and from the reflection of the water on the gleaming likeness of King.
Like King himself, the memorial calls on us to remember the past, but more importantly to look forward to a brighter future.
Author’s note: My visit to the memorial on Tuesday August 29, 2011, was 2 days after the planned dedication of the site and 1 day after the anniversary of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” Speech, for which a time capsule was buried on the site. Due to Hurricane Irene, the dedication was postponed for a later date. I wonder if the chains surrounding the statue of King in this image are permanent – in the same way that they serve as a barrier in the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, or if the chains will be removed - leaving the site open like the FDR memorial - following the dedication.
Harness the Power of Learning Spaces
Classroom space should work for us, not against us. As the evolution of classroom space continues, many professors find themselves working in innovative environments like studios, computer labs, and modifiable classrooms. To effectively facilitate learning in such spaces, teachers must harness the power of the space instead of being paralyzed by it.
At Queens University of Charlotte, the Knight-Crane Convergence Laboratory is one of these innovative spaces. The 20-iMac gallery, modifiable furniture, Tri-Caster video technology and production studio, and PolyCom system combine to make it a highly flexible and technologically advanced space. Students tell me that, while they highly value the space, the sole detriment of these systems is the high possibility for distraction from course material.
Here are a few of the strategies I’ve used to enhance the learning environment of my classes in innovative spaces like this one:
- Encourage lab time to be experimental.
During our lab times (the time spent at the computer or using other technology in the room) I encourage individual music to be playing with headphones in one ear. I suggest that students who seem lethargic get coffee or a snack at the campus coffeehouse and come back. I will often send people with “writer’s block” out of the room to go for a quick walk with a thinking task. - Employ energy shifts.
If we are using the computers to complete a project, we sit at the computers. Otherwise, we sit around the tables in the middle of the room. I find this especially helpful for critiques. My students will often leave their “stuff” at the computer, bring their notes to the middle and then return to the computers. At the beginning of class, I say something like, “Hello everyone, today, we’re going to be around the center tables. Come join me.” We commonly move at least once per class – and I make a big deal to have these moves occur quickly.
Note: if we are doing critiques of student work and they are bringing up work on the computer to display in class, then we set the order. While Person 1 presents, person 2 sets up on another computer. Everyone else sits in the middle and critiques. Everyone at the computer is a recipe for inattention during critiques. - Invade space.
I move around the room quickly constantly looking at student work. During computer times, this is a key strategy. I never sit in one spot and rarely stop moving, except to help a student with a complex task. Sitting and responding is not enough to facilitate learning in a space like this. - Direct confrontation.
At the beginning of the semester, I usually say something like: “In this room, I find it very easy to get distracted. For many of us, this means being on Facebook or Twitter or watching a news or sports broadcast during class. This is an unacceptable use of our time, unless we are using these tools as a class.”
Every space is different and every teacher is different. The key to success is balancing the potential of the learning environment with the abilities of the instructor. If you’ve used other strategies to harness the power of classroom space, please share them here.
Popular Music meets Digital Subcultures
“Digital Subculture: A geek meaning of style” was selected as a chapter for the Sage Benchmarks in Culture and Society reference text, Popular Music.
The research article — originally published in the Journal of Communication Inquiry – was an argument that subcultures could gather in digital spaces the same way that they convened in coffee houses and concert venues.
I am honored to be included in this text, and to have my study heralded by the publisher among “the best that has been thought and published in the academic study of popular music.”
Here’s the description of the reference guide from the Sage website:
This collection focuses on social science perspectives on popular music since the late 1970s when the drift away from Musicology started. The latter focuses upon music as a sequence of notes and silence, rather than the social, economic, cultural and political contexts in which popular music is produced, exchanged and consumed. Since the 1970s, social scientists like Simon Frith, Larry Grossberg, Will Straw, Paul Willis, Andy Bennett, Keith Negus, Howard Becker and Sarah Thornton have intensively examined the phenomenon of popular music from a social science and cultural studies perspective. This is part of the same move in the social and cultural sciences that has magnified Visual Culture, Celebrity Culture, Television Studies, Film Studies, Media & Communication, Fashion, and much else besides as legitimate subjects for academic enquiry. This move has become known as ‘the Cultural Turn’.
This collection launches from the Cultural Turn, but it will also incorporate key articles from the early social science of pop music. The aim will be to provide researchers and libraries with a four volume distillation of the best that has been thought and published in the academic study of popular music.
Volume One: History and Theoretical Traditions provides the historical and theoretical anchor for the remainder of the set.
Volume Two: Mode of Production brings together material that relates the production of popular music to technology, production, distribution and consumption, amongst others.
Volume Three: Institutions of Popular Music examines the academic literature on the main social and ‘cultural intermediaries’ of popular music such as impression managers, new systems of music promotion and informal politics.
Volume Four: Cultures and Subcultures of Popular Music guides the reader through music subcultures, audiences and globalization.
Offices Don’t Need Walls
On my commute this morning, I noticed the most curious of offices. Naturally, I photographed and tweeted my haphazard discovery:
Offices. Increasingly mobile and no longer constrained by walls: http://twitpic.com/3r6q86—
John A. McArthur (@JAMcArthur) January 18, 2011
The result of my single, innocent tweet has been a backlash of comments about the cultural and sociological implications of such a shift.
Spaces create meaning for the people in and around them. The nature of a space communicates issues of power, relationship, and values. I love the space of my office with its cherry (veneer) bookcases, contemporary professorial fixtures like globes and paper clip sculptures, and the signs and seals of educational attainment dripping from the walls. It is comfortable, inviting, pleasant, and professional. Yet, increasingly, the spaces that matter to us are changing.
In a recent interview, I was asked if I spend as much time in my office as a professor would have a generation ago. I responded that I do – with the caveat that my office is mobile. Like the News Channel 36 Mobile Newsroom, my office moves with me. I routinely hold office hours with my iPhone in the coffeehouse. My computer and I can create a student advising meeting in any classroom, office, or parking lot that has WiFi access.
Thus, the questions people have been asking me all day, I now pose to you. What are the repercussions of conducting business in mobile offices? How do they impact the workplace? Could you give up your square footage and go totally wireless?
Language and Social Interaction in CMC
Scholars in language and social interaction study face-to-face, oral conversations. However, some are turning their attention toward Internet-based conversation. In this panel, entitled, “Language & Social Interaction Research into Internet-Mediated Communication,” presenters discussed the relationship between language, social interaction, and conversations on the Internet.
The major question here is whether (1) the medium drives the character of the conversation or (2) digital conversation is relatively similar to face-to-face conversation. Researchers studied deliberative discussion groups, synchronous discussion boards, sites for virtual meetings, online bulletin boards, chat rooms, and asynchronous community sites.
In sum, these papers suggest that even though online conversations are filled with interruptions and miscommunication, they can provide a valuable space to create community and share group stories. Some of the major themes discussed are below:
- What Counts as a Response? Analyzing Narratives and Discerning Response Patterns in Asynchronous Online Discussion Groups
Laura Black (Ohio University)
Language and Social Interaction scholars often study personal narratives, conversational storytelling, cultural communication, and conflict termination strategies. Online discussions are challenged because of issues of time, nonverbal cues, conversational norms, identity, and the communication’s visual display. The question for us is how to analyze asynchronous online discussions. Threaded and non-threaded discussions create conversation structures that may or may not reflect the actual pattern of communication. - Co-Orientation Without Co-Presence: Collaboration in Computer Chat
Kris Markman (Univ of Memphis)
The order and flow of conversations in chat rooms are often controlled by the medium, rather than the participants. In many cases, the medium interrupts the conversation, reminding us that the conversation is at once digital and not interpersonal. A cool technique in this study follows keystrokes during chat to demonstrate the timing of responses in the conversation. Comment repetition focuses the conversation, but it also extends the decision-making time - CHAMELEON: Individual and Community Ethos on the Internet
Julie Woodbury (Hamline University)
Conversation and online community allow people to perform an identity that they might not otherwise. Storytelling of everyday life can flourish in online communities. - From Old South to New Media: Vernacular History, Narrative, and Conversation in the Memory Book Cyber-Museum
Patricia G. Davis (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
The cyber-museum provides broader knowledge and shapes language more than the physical museum ever could. Physical museums limit the discussion. Yet, websites surrounding museum displays can create and foster a discussion and conversation that can advance knowledge and develop a site for the archiving of narratives that would otherwise be lost.
How does the digital space of the Internet help and hinder conversation? Share your thoughts here.
Diana, Queen of the Inanimate Twitterverse
Amidst elements that threaten to oxidize, cleanse, sear and scar, the bronze statue of Young Diana nobly stands, keeping watch over those who pass her by. Cast by renowned sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington in 1924, the bronze was a gift to the university from the artist herself in 1940. This year, Diana celebrates her seventieth anniversary as a fixture on the idyllic Queens University of Charlotte campus.
Over the past seven decades, she watched as her beloved Queens grew, fashioning itself into a leading comprehensive university. She famously donned a tie to welcome the first resident men onto campus in the 1980s. She remained the college’s stalwart icon in a transition from small liberal arts college to thriving university. And, in her prominent location in the (appropriately-named) Diana courtyard, she is, perhaps, the most photographed location on the Myers Park campus.
The silent observer of her domain, Diana has often served as a gathering site, a model, an element in art projects, and a marketing icon for the institution and her students. And in 2009, Diana combined all of those roles together as she began speaking for herself, through the advancing technology of Twitter (@QueensDiana, Diana’s Twitter profile).
A tweeting statue is not an original idea. A pair of enormous lions tweet about the events in and around the Art Institute of Chicago (@ChicagoLions). The Statue of Liberty shares insights and information for visitors (@StatueLibrtyNPS). The Eric Morcambe statue in Lancashire, England even tweets the weather twice a day for the convenience of locals (@ericsstatue). Yet, Diana is a hyperlocal example of the type of interaction that Twitter and other social media can provide, even among the inanimate.
In her early days on Twitter, Diana socialized primarily with other statues and the professors and staff at Queens University of Charlotte (@QueensUniv), but her appeal quickly drew the attention of Charlotteans. In a city influenced heavily by social media, she was a fast friend for area social media leaders, even tweeting out photos at The Charlotte Observer‘s first Social Media Conference. As a result, the kings of Twitter’s inanimate beasts – the Art Institute’s Lions – crowned her “Queen of the Inanimate Twitterverse.“
The true identity of @QueensDiana has been a well-kept secret in her first year of social media fame, but those who follow her tweets know that she is more than a marketing ploy or info-bot. She tweets according to the day, the mood, and the circumstances of life at Queens University of Charlotte. She shares anecdotes of love, faith, strength, and wisdom; but more importantly, she connects with her followers directly, often re-tweeting their ideas or the events they think are important.
On campus, she has always been a physical site for making connections. Perhaps it is fitting that her role in the digital world is no different.
You can follow Diana on Twitter @QueensDiana or friend her on Facebook. For Queens University of Charlotte’s official social media presence, follow @QueensUniv or connect here.
