The Mind at Work: another real world ethnography

Another excellent ethnographic work is The Mind at Work by Mike Rose, a well respected teacher and current faculty member at UCLA, and reading this excerpt from his website can assist you as you pull together your final project.

Rose's website states:

In the tradition of Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed and Studs Terkel's Working, The Mind at Work is an illuminating reassessment of American labor. Testimonials to physical work have always celebrated the dignity, the economic and moral value, even the nobility of blue-collar labor, but rarely the thought required to get the job done right. The lightning-fast organization and mental calculations of the waitress; the complex spatial mathematics of the carpenter; the aesthetic and intellectual dexterity of the hair stylist—our failure to acknowledge or respect these qualities has undermined a large portion of America's working population. In The Mind at Work writer Mike Rose sets the record straight by taking a long hard look at the intellectual demands of common work.

Integrating personal stories of his own working-class family with interviews, vivid snapshots of people on the job, and current research in social science and cognitive psychology, Rose draws a brilliantly original portrait of America at work. As he probes the countless decisions, computations, and subtle judgments made every day by welders and plumbers, waitresses and electricians, Rose redefines the nature of important work and overturns the "hand/brain" dichotomy that blinds us to the real contributions of working people.

Real World Ethnography

Nickle and Dimed is a book by writer Barbara Ehrenreich in which she goes undercover to report on the life of the low-middle class American working trying to get by. Amazon.com writes, "Acclaimed as an instant classic upon publication, Nichttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifkel and Dimed has sold more than 1.5 million copies and become a staple of classroom reading. Chosen for “one book” initiatives across the country, it has fueled nationwide campaigns for a living wage. Funny, poignant, and passionate, this revelatory firsthand account of life in low-wage America—the story of Barbara Ehrenreich’s attempts to eke out a living while working as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart associate—has become an essential part of the nation’s political discourse." This website contains an excerpt that you may find helpful as you work on composing your final ethnographic project. It is an introduction to Nickle and Dimed that is very similar to combining the material you each of done in your iresearcher and part of your lay of the land essays.

Check This Out

So I know this has nothing to do with class but check out this video from a former student of mine. He is crazy talented. Check it out and pass it around please.

Death by PowerPoint

Check this out and be sure you do not fall into this trap when presenting next week.

Blogging

I am noticing that blog posts are getting weaker as the semester is going on. First, posts are rather short and not in depth. Second, few are taking advantage of the affordances of digital media such as including images, links, or videos that may be relevant. Third, conversation between clasmates on blogs is slowing down. Blogs are a great place to jot down your ideas, formulate thoughts on your projects, and get feedback from classmates. Be helpful to each other.

Beginning with your next blog post, we will be taking 10 minutes each Monday to discuss the topics you blogged about and generate some discussion in class. This will help us bring attention to what you are blogging about.

Weebly Tutorial

The video below might be helpful to you as you build your websites using Weebly.

Website tool for documents

Scribd.com is a great tool for placing your essays on your websites. Scribd works like Youtube for documents. You create a free account and then upload your essays to it. You can then take an embed code for the document from Skype, go to Weebly, drag down the custom html box, and paste the code in. This is what I use for all your assignment sheets on my own website.