Helpful Hints and Reflections on Some Reflections

As a quasi-cybergeek, I feel compelled to offer technical assistance whenever someone has a question I think I can answer (since my partner is a web designer and the webmaster at IPFW, I am geeky by association), so I think I might be able to address some of Therese’s questions:

· I’m pretty sure the “Draft” option allows you to edit and manage your own posts. Your drafts might look as if they’re on the blog, but they’re not actually there (for others to see) until you post/publish them. If you want to see what your post will look like before you actually publish it, use the "Preview" function at the far right end of the composing menu.

· To format a word in bold or italics, highlight the word with your cursor and click the “b” (for bold) or “i” (for italics) button on the composing menu (directly under the field for “Title”). Other buttons on this menu will allow you to change the color of selected text or hyperlink selected text, if you wish. There's also a button that allows you to add a picture.

· Since the composing feature of this blog doesn’t seem to offer a spellcheck option, I compose each post in Microsoft Word, spellcheck it there, and then copy-and-paste it into the blog’s composition box. Then I can format the text as I choose.

Hope these “pointers” help…

I’d also like to respond to Nisreen’s questions about identifying oneself by one’s country of origin. I’ve noticed that Americans rarely identify themselves as Americans—unless they’re not in America. In Europe or Australia or Africa, an American will identify him/herself as “American,” but while in America, that same American will usually identify him/herself as a “Hoosier,” a “New Yorker,” a “Californian,” etc. I think this happens because we feel compelled to place ourselves back within a familiar context whenever we’re outside that context.

Jeff’s comments about the current emphasis on participation—as opposed to competition—strike a chord with me. I’m kind of ambivalent on this issue. I do think that there should be some point to sports competition—i.e., why bother competing in a sport if you’re not trying to win? But I also support the idea of formative feedback instead of grades, which I think are of very limited value. I suppose I just don’t see grades as competition, although I do think that both factors (sports and scholastic achievement) play a pivotal role in the development of identity.

I also want to mention something about the first Kroger reading (“Perspectives on Identity”). Is anyone familiar with McAdams (whom she mentions on p. 22 in the section called ‘Narrative Approaches to identity’)? His ideas about the distinction between the I and the me in the narrative study of identity remind me an awful lot of the distinction between plot (sjužet) and story (fabula) in narrative theory (I’m thinking specifically about Reading for the Plot by Peter Brooks).

Jim