Sunday, March 8, 2009

Handwritten Blog Post

Page 1 of a handwritten postPage 2 of a handwritten post

6 comments:

V Yonkers said...

What nice handwriting! I couldn't post a copy of my handwritten blog because most people couldn't read my handwriting! Your post put me in mind, however, of one of my previous posts. I think you must have some spatial thinking as you need to add in ideas. That is probably why it is more difficult without the computer.

Paul C said...

'Handwritten blog post' an interesting anachronism or incongruity? I like the balance provided in the message. What do we gain and lose by technological developments?

Blogger In Middle-earth said...

Kia ora Virginia!

Not sure what you mean by "you need to add in ideas". Are you suggesting that I add in ideas (to the post) or that it is a fact that when writing, ideas may need to be added? I'm not sure if you are speaking of the particular or the general situation.

Also, your link seems to take me off on a chase that doesn't lead me far - did you embed the correct site address in your 'previous posts' link?

Tēnā koe Paul!

Well in terms of posting on a blog, it certainly is an anachronism, but then, so am I. I'm not sure what we lose other than the forced pace to reflect. This is what the lack of technology seems to be doing for me over the days I've been without the PC.

It is allowing my thinking to 'go fallow' as it were - not a bad thing I suspect - without forgetting about technology per se.

Catchya later

Mr Wood said...

You are absolutely right that handwriting on paper is very different to typing. I find I also get sidetracked and keep changing my ideas when typing, it's so easy.

Also the handwritten word is not obsolete and looks very powerful, especially if you have such great handwriting. I would like to try this with my primary class and use the opportunity to teach scanning at the same time. Thank you.

V Yonkers said...

Sorry about the confusion, Ken. That's what happens when you're fighting to stay on the computer with your kids.

I have found in the past that some of my students naturally write linearly (usually history or English teachers). In fact, they have trouble writing hypertext and don't really need an outline to write because that's how they THINK! On the other hand, I have notes all over the margins, adding in ideas as I make connections from one section to the next. This is how you (and Shaun) described your writing. I think this means there is more spatial thinking to your writing, which you must then adjust into a linear model of writing (as this is the structure for English).

I'm betting that you probably have no problem including hypertext into your posts. Some of my students did. They just sat looking at the screen blankly, trying to figure out how they would incorporate links into their writing. It was surprising to me as I find hypertext freeing, allowing me to focus my writing instead of going off on tangets. Which reminds me, sorry, I sent you to my edited post rather than the blog post which is here.

Blogger In Middle-earth said...

Tēnā koe Shaun!

I'm glad you've found something useful in this post. At the time I published it I had thoughts of it going down like a lead sinker.

One thing that I did do some research on is the various types of scans/photography etc, that gave the best results online.

Originally I took a digital photograph of the script. That was not so good and had problems associated with evenness of illumination, shade and lighting etc. Eventually I used the fax/scanner which actually gave better results - sharpness of line, clean, no lighting shadows. I suspect that a straight scan may give similar results but I didn't try that.

The other bit of research I did was to do with image dimension as well as looking at the best size of actual writing to get the clearest results.

An image size of 370w x 400h (pixels) seemed to be an optimum size for Blogger to upload. If the image was too high, Blogger resized it so that the displayed width was too narrow. All these things I'd never thought about until I tried it.

Kia ora Virginia!
I read what you say about linear vs spatial thinking/writing. I think that is what gives me a lot of heartache when it comes to communicating (my) thoughts and ideas to others who (perhaps) think more linearly than I do. I've known for a good number of years that I don't necessarily think linearly - I guess some of this shows in my writing if you analyse it.

I don't really spend much time analysing this, but recently (in the last 2 to 3 years) I have noticed that I tend to throw down my (related) thoughts in paragraphs that don't necessarily read linearly.

I have to adjust the way they lie (sometimes with cursory amendments to accommodate the rearrangement) so that thoughts look as though they are flowing linearly. This is something I've had to learn to do.

Thanks for getting back with this - it is fascinating stuff.

Catchya later