Reading together

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Time photoOur course invites you to work with data collection and analysis, readings, and discussion around the field of literacy studies

Author: martinezzeth

It has no end

It has no end

Almost everyone in class knows my claim of the first thing I learn but I feel it will be a story I tell when asked about this class, so let’s start this blog off with that C- story once again. The first day in class we were told to do was to write down what we considered literacy and I jotted down a wide, what I thought at the time, inclusive work that included: books, blogs, poems, online readings, magazines, and I believe comics. A wide, vague, body to work, but then it was brought to my attention about lyrics for songs and instantly my mind blew, nuclear. Music lyrics are such an important part of my daily life, oftentimes I sing to calm myself from a bad day, repeating my favorite lyrics whilst in a good mood, or curing disturbing silence with my awful voice. How could I forget such an important part of my life, an important literacy that I use everyday.

Looking through my blogs, I feel, is a good indicator of what I valued throughout the readings, such is the example of my second blog: Hamilton’s theory of Literacy, “Visible literacy events are just the tip of the iceberg: literacy practice can only be inferred from observing evidence because they include invisible resources.” Through every work of literacy we find we, as future teachers, scholars, and thinkers, must understand that there is the product, the purpose, and work behind it. We know the product, we can find the purpose, but the work behind it we may never know, an unknowable element in every piece of work. From works crafted by masters like Hamlet, to simple labors of love like fan fiction, the author behind it had hours, of thinking behind every line, attempting to craft the picture in their head on written word. Txt’s themselves, the rising language of us modern youths, has been considered a literal language with rules of its own, thus an underlining of deeper thoughts.

Keri Franklin’s piece, #PleaseHelp: Learning to write (again) on Twitter, Sponsor idea really spoke to me. I think out of all the ideas in all the works we read this one will stick with me the longest. Sponsors are all around us and in several forms, from actual people to ideas and concepts in other works. We can’t escape them and we shouldn’t try, instead we should embrace them. Learning from others, their ideas, breakthroughs, and failures, is how humanity managed to establish themselves as the apex predator. It had little to do with our physical feats, even our communal element isn’t uniquely ours. Through adapting and building off our society will improve, just as our literacy will improve.

Our group projects taught me that group work doesn’t have to be awful, it can even be fun. First off, picking a category is probably the best way of selecting groups, you already know you at least have one thing in common. The problem with picking your own teams is that it creates tension among friends, not everyone is comfortable to tell their friends how they truly feel. Not to mention it forms bonds with strangers that can lead to its own friendships. To be honest, if I had my way I would have little-to-no human contact, and that’s no way to live, not us social creatures. Also the project sharing element allowed us to build on every individuals strength, especially for the gaming group were everyone had a specific job, that breaks the project down to its bare essentials. This teaches us how to tackle problems, using others strengths to replace our weaknesses while contributing our own strengths into the fold. Together we made a better project than alone and I think that’s what I usually hate about projects, others hide under the strength of one, giving no input. This doesn’t inherently mean they are lazy or have no ideas, it can mean that each group is dominated by a powerful personality and the more introverted and less confrontational of us simply go with the flow. Don’t get me wrong, at times I’m sure I am the aggressive personality, but this allows more opportunity for others to include their own ideas.

How about the blog? Well I’m doing a blog right now! I feel my best blogs are done with as little amount of guidelines as possible, but others felt the exact opposite and that’s okay… they can be wrong if they want to they can leave their friends behind. I do understand some of it, at times it felt tedious, and I feel those blogs show in my blogging history, but in all it is a wonderful experience and ties to the core concept of our readings. Technology should be included in our education, learning to use digital resources is important and will only increase its importance in the future. Through blogging I felt a side of my writing that combined a side of my personality in it. Is this the best for critical analysis? It isn’t the worst. It’s said that the person who actually understands something is the one who can explain it to others, a simple idea but true. It is more important that you actually apply your knowledge to you than learning it, unused knowledge is stored and eventually forgotten. So to those who find it tedious, perhaps it isn’t the best form of getting their ideas out there but to me it felt like a golden opportunity to expand my creative voice, a step into new progress.

The major thing I learned in this class is the very thing I learned on day one, not to say that was the only class that mattered. Literacy is beyond categories, a list, or a definition. Literacy is ever-changing, ever-adapting, and ever-present in our lives and to understand it isn’t a simple list but an endless pursuit. Be forewarned, this is an endless rabbit hole you tread but in the end, isn’t that the best thing to hear, literacy has no end. The pursuit is ongoing and forever important. Yes, it is an endless rabbit hole you tread but better to stride endlessly than wait aimlessly.

What I learn

What I learn

I found all the group presentations a fun and exciting event, each one had their own unique way of involving us which goes to show how creative each one of our groups really are.

Adolescent Literacy: First off, being the first of anything is a tough job. The first has to set the standard and can’t even benefit from other group input. They are the pioneers. Asking us question to get into the mindset of adolescent literacy and involving the groups in a question answer pattern.

Hip Hop and Literacy: Rap, what fun thing to work on. Our activity of crafting our own rap song did two major things: it forced us to think creatively and made us work together.  It was interesting, the process of working together in a creative way, coming up with our own lines and building off others. The end product was cheese and funny but uniquely ours. To be honest, when the project was presented to us I had doubts on my ability to contribute but found it easy to build off our group.

Make/Hack/Play: Once again we’re put in a situation were we have to think creatively but this time we are to invent something for a particular problem. It teaches us to think outside the box and even, with the time limits and opposing groups, forced us to act under pressure.

Gaming in Education

Gaming in Education

While searching through these articles, videos, and PowerPoint three things emerged: environment, tools, and community. When talking about environment it simply means the environment in which you play games and how that contributes to your overall experience. Tools are the technological elements that the participant uses in order to play the game thus increasing technological literacy. Community is the team building skills earned while participating in gaming. Not every game, or game type, uses all of these functions but they will use some in varying degrees.

The stereotypical environment that governs gaming is the bedroom. This stems from one type of game being considered, the leisurely viedogames. However, some games force the player to explore the world, “(w)hen I travel to a new city, I use Ingress to help me explore.” While some leisurely games educate players of the real world, “that kind of historical and geographical knowledge was something they were really hoping to provide throughout the game.” In Ingress the environment is the natural world, were the player is encouraged to explore and given incentive to do so. In games like Assassin’s Creed, the geography is done so with extensive detail, not only that but Assassin’s Creed also tries to be as historically accurate as possible. Environment is how a game educates the player, what skills they build, and how they build those skills.

Tools stem from console to computer programs. Games force the gamer to increase their technological literacy. For example, Ingress makes use of phones, it is an app that the player downloads and learns to use. Minecraft has become a massive tool used to educate. The capacity for one to build in Mincecraft has led to several experiments such as: a functioning calculator, a cell, even a nuclear reactor! Minecraft, also functioning as an environment, is a highly functional tool for players to learn complex concepts in a safe environment. Thus players build their skills and increase their technological literacy.

Community is something that applies to every game. From simple wiki pages to entire schools built on programming, community is an important element for any gamer. As a gamer myself, I couldn’t even count the times a wiki article has save me from insanity. Wiki pages are mostly used to share and distribute information to aid players but just yesterday I found myself in a page that described what happened after, basically functioning as a platform for fanfiction. Schools are also building off gaming communities such as Quest to Learn. This sixth to twelfth grade school has students collaborate together while building games that build their academic skills. Schools like this build community skills and prepare their students for a more digital world.

These three skills–environment, tools, and community–are the new evolution of gaming in education. If games are to play a role in our new academic world, we must expand these skills.

 

Remixing Moby-Dick a study of a study

Remixing Moby-Dick a study of a study

In the class room there seems to be a sort of demanded reading process; a strict analytical read that focuses on a specific element that the teacher, school, or bureaucracy believes to be of the utmost important. Reading in A Participatory Culture: Remixing Moby-Dick in the English classroom is study of a new manner of education, one that is more open to the culture around the student in an attempt to relate the text to them as opposed to said student relating the text to the government instituted correct interpretation. The book is a collection of studies that hopes to encourage a more digital literate classroom where a teacher helps and educate the student in how to use the digital world to their advantage. Largely, however, it is about individual interpretation and creation.

Individual interpretation, anything we read is inherently subject to our own individual understanding. Our experiences help us relate to things in a personal and unique level yet in the classroom a specific unnamed Master claims the right of the correct interpretation. This ‘correct’ interpretation has stood the test of time and has been accepted by the ‘experts.’ All must fear and obey this interpretation once in the four walled room of English, all must accept without question the ‘correct interpretation.’ This process of education is suitable and understandable for indoctrination and limited worldly communication but to accept this as the only interpretation is to do a horrible disservice to the world. Pitts-Wiley, a man who remixed his own play interpretation of Moby Dick–named Moby-Dick: Then and Now–spoke of interpretations from his students, they were told to write their own interpretation of Moby Dick. This particulate group of students find themselves in a hard, real, world filled with violence and drugs, thus their interpretation and reliability reflected that, “(H)e worried he was now a threat to the great omnipotent WhiteThing.” Individual interpretation is unavoidable, Reading in a Participatory Culure: Remixing Moby-Dick in the English Classroom is about recognizing our own individuality and creating off of that.

The study focuses a great deal on creating in the modern world. Specifically–though not limited too–fanfiction. This was an intriguing element because fanfiction is a common reality in the digital world. If there is a fictional world then you can find fanfiction of it. The study works hard in making the argument that fanfiction is the ultimate understanding of any given work. To create a narrative withing another world, paying tribute to another world, and creating honest interpretation of that worlds characters is something to be respected not vilified. Not to mention that these are “works of love,” these authors are not receiving recognition for their works, their work is due to the love of the original work alone. The study wants to encourage this sort of devotion for other works such as Moby Dick for students to better understand the world that these authors sought to create.

So how does this work help improve our understanding of literary studies? Well Mr. MacGuffin, it seeks to expand literacy beyond that of the traditional study of novels to match a more digital world. The talents of the younger generation added into the study of older works in order to make the work relate to them in a more individual level. With such an understanding, students may be more willing to not only read for the classroom but read for their own benefit as well.

Literacy as of now

Literacy as of now

I would like to start of this blog with a sort of recap of what I had initially believed literacy to look like. When I first thought of the concept of literacy I figured it had to connect with what I read. A simplistic list: novels, articles, and online short stories. I’m sure I may have thought of more but those were the three that struck me right at that moment–my own personal trio–and even then that list was expanded on in our first group discussion. I think it was song lyrics that really caught me off guard because that is such a part of my literary practice! Even now I am listening to music as I type these words. It was at that moment that I realized I had little idea the gravity that simple word: literacy. So what does literacy mean to me? If I must answer that then come with me and you will see a world of pure speculation!

The answer to that is not as simple as I had once thought but bear witness as I simplify that answer: literacy is an ever-changing device that aids us in understanding ourselves, others, and the vast collection of cultures around us. The science behind communication. From the first grunt and point combination to the new world of digital communication; our literacies have been slowly–or perhaps rapidly–changing but the purpose remains the same. We, as people seek to understand. As my earlier opinion demonstrated, I viewed literacy as a key to understanding myself. My interpretation of literacy had little to do with communication with others and largely dealt with my comprehension skills.

From Szwed’s “Ethnography of Literacy” there is a sort of urgency in ensuring that the scholarly statistics include subcultures, “(t)he end product… should be an inventory from at least one American sub-communities literacies.” Let us take a moment to process that, doesn’t it stand to reason we would examine sub-cultures in literacy if literacy itself is an attempt to understand our cultures and others? Yet, it seems that Szwed actually has to make an entire article over this very concept. Two factions appear throughout literary history that seem in a constant tug-of-war: the linguistic conservative and the linguistic progressive. Half of those studying literacy beckon a time of perfect literacy–a sort of language fascism that calls upon a make-believe utopian past to justify itself–while the other half seeks to embrace change. Change is inescapable and uncompromising. Let us, for a moment, look at twitter, a social platform I despise, for how inescapable changes in literacy are. I hate twitter but despite my hate of it it thrives and, for some, it is a connection to the world around them. It can function as a way of finding like-minded people or to rant at the world.

In every article we have read there seems a sort of battle between these factions of literacy. Those who say change is death are on the losing side of history, it is unavoidable. From Deborah Brandt’s “Sponsors of Literacy,” this quote spoke to me, “literacy… is a valued commodity… a key resource in gaining profit and edge” and this made me recall my interview with my dad. Any time he sought to address the word of literacy he wanted to stress his failure or success in the subject. He measured his successes with grades he received in his schooling and his failures with his inability to apply them. His words made me deeply reflect on my past look on literacy, for I too had a similar opinion. A book was my literacy because I could read, an article was literacy because I can understand, but lyrics to a song never crossed my mind. You feel lyrics, you don’t read them, but how isn’t that literacy? The importance of literacy is the ability to apply it, we no longer grunt to make our point known, no longer dip our hands in the mouth of fire to know it is burning (and if you do still tend to do that for the love of all that is don’t!), just as we change so too does literacy. So as for my understanding of literacy now? Well, it is the ability to communicate and understand how others communicate. All forms of communication, from the text to novel, or tweet to language. Literacy will forever adapt just as we do, just as we must.

As for individual literacy, well, individual literacy is an illusion. Our understanding of anything comes from knowledge passed down to us, for the purpose of writing down information in the first place was to expand on ancestral knowledge. Our own individual understanding comes from notions of others. English is a collection of grunts that we claim means something because our culture allows it to mean something. Literacy, by its very nature, is social as it is the aspect of understanding.