Popular sources like The Verge, Techcrunch, and Forbes have recently revealed that millions of households have bought and installed “smart home assistants” or “smart speakers” like the Amazon Echo and Google Home. Since its release in mid October 2017, Google has reportedly sold more than 6 million units of its newest, more affordable smart speaker, the Google Home Mini. In the first quarter of 2018, Apple is slated to expand this market with its version of home assistant, the Apple HomePod. Together, these retail intelligent units are making artificial intelligence (AI) a recognizable and approachable household technology in an age…
Author: Jason Tham
Jason Tham, Lauren Garskie, Lauren Brentnell
Jason is a PhD candidate in Rhetoric and Scientific and Technical Communication at the University of Minnesota––Twin Cities. His current research focuses on making and design thinking in writing pedagogy, multimodality, and emerging technologies such as wearables and mixed reality.
Background In this collection, four graduate scholars investigate a suite of collaborative technologies, namely join.me, Facebook Messenger, Scalar, and WebEx, for their features and rhetorical implications on our communication, work, and pedagogy. Using various theoretical frames drawn from rhetoric, technical communication, and team science literature, these scholars evaluate the design of specific virtual workspaces and provide ideas for enhancing the platforms for more rhetorically sound collaboration. Each evaluation concludes with pedagogical recommendations for teachers to consider should they decide to deploy the technologies in their classes. Read the reviews: join.me: A collaborative mainstay in industry with potential uses in transformative,…
Summary In mid October, three prominent researchers of wearable and embodied technologies––Drs. Nicole Caswell (East Carolina University), Ann Hill Duin (University of Minnesota), and Michelle Eble (East Carolina University)––participated in a virtual roundtable hosted by DRC Graduate Fellows Jason Tham and Lauren Garskie to discuss digital rhetoric in the context of immersive technological experience. The roundtable began with Caswell, Duin, and Eble each sharing what wearable technologies meant to them. In defining wearable technologies, Eble explained them as on or in the body, which can lead to a quantified self. Caswell expanded on this by defining them as not only…
My views and evaluation of digital rhetoric are rooted in the practices and disciplines through which I have traversed. My early encounters with computers happened both in school and at home. Along with other 10-year-olds, I was led by our teacher into our school’s brand new computer lab back in 2000. At the turn of the millennium, Malaysia (my ancestral home) was picking up its pace in scientific and technological development––especially across schools and governmental infrastructures––and there was a pervasive national narrative that aimed to promote science education and computer literacy. Thanks to generous donors and state endowments, my friends…