I fully appreciated Keri Franklin’s honesty in her failure. I, too, had to create a Twitter for a class and could not figure out how it worked. Unlike Franklin, however, I gave up on Twitter once the assignment was concluded. I found it to be rigorous and vain. Of course, I’m not trying to imply users are vain, but I didn’t find any useful application for it in my own life. In this manner, I avoided a new and popular literacy. In fact, I didn’t even merely avoid Twitter, I openly rejected it. What kind of society can have people who can choose to accept or reject forms of literacy? That would seem to imply that there are such a vast level of literacies, that each person can choose to be proficient in one over another and so on. How fascinating is that?

Digital literacies have opened a whole new world of proficiencies and languages for users. Sponsors for digital literacies are a rather abrupt shift away from traditional sponsors of the past (teachers, parents, etc.). In fact, it can be recognized that the sponsees of old are now the sponsors for their own sponsors. How many people in this class have taught their parents or grandparents how to use a smartphone, a laptop, or another digital program? Additionally, we aren’t only sponsored by people in the digital world. It might even be more prudent to recognize that digital sponsors have been one of the largest parts of our growing digital literacy. Google and all of its applications, Microsoft, YouTube with its “how to” videos, and online articles have all been massive sponsors in my digital literacy. This is exceptionally different from sponsors of print-based literacies because it is a whole other medium of literacy.

Other than Twitter, my most recent experience with learning a literate practice was Edmodo. I was required to make an account for my job as a writing tutor in the Student Learning Center. This digital form was a rather easy transition to accept. Since I had had a Facebook account 4 or so years ago, I remembered a lot of the layout which was similar to Edmodo. In this way, taking on this new literacy was not so “new” after all. That brings up an interesting idea though. It would seem that operating a lot of these digital systems and having a basis in digital literacy is like riding a bike. Once you have the foundation, you don’t forget how to use it. For the smaller, more technical aspects of a digital literacy, there is certainly a learning curve and sometimes even a learning ceiling for many people (i.e. my sister has never been able to figure out the FAFSA), but the point remains that there is some seemingly perpetual understanding of the broader scope of a digital literacy once it is learned.

Or not. I could just be making all of this up. It sounded good though, right?

Oh wait! I just remembered: my most recent digital literacy was actually making a website for my mom’s fourth grade class. That was a little tougher to figure out, but still manageable, especially since I knew how to upload pictures, etc. I tried to show my mom how to do it, but she wasn’t getting it. See the link below for an interesting discussion of crystallized vs. fluid intelligence.

http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/a/fluid-crystal.htm

In any case, I created a nice website for my mom. And, of course, I made sure it looked and operated better than the other teachers’ sites. Was that passive-aggressive?

• What kind of reading and writing practices are you involved in now? I am asked to write technical reports and nonfiction books on specific subjects (i.e. gangs, sexual assaults, etc. for law enforcement training). I’m asked to read books and reports in the same genre. Though retired as a detective, I am still asked to read over various criminal cases that are being put together to ensure investigations were conducted properly, and the right defendant has been arrested. Additionally, from a technological standpoint, I write emails, text messages, and sometimes comment on news articles. I read various news from national and international sources every morning before I start my day. I also read forums in which fans comment on how well they think the Oakland Raiders are going to do this season. We all start out hopeful in the beginning.

I was interested about how “mass produced images of literacy practices are of interest to us because of our long-standing concern with the ways that literacy and those with literacy difficulties are portrayed…in the media…”(Hamilton 19). It was fascinating just how many similar images arose from a Google image search of “parent and child reading” that arose in class on Friday. Additionally, these images are always seen as positive images. I don’t know a single person (though there may be some) who would look at the ubiquitous image of a parent helping a child learn to read and view it with negative connotations. I had never really thought about how literacy is portrayed in the media and our perceptions as a society of (il)literacy. We see literacy as quite a fundamental aspect of our society, and put great emphasis on ensuring the masses aren’t incapable of simple reading and writing. We, collective America, furthermore tend to see illiteracy as exceptionally negative, disappointing, or beneath us as a society as sad as that might be.

I was, admittedly, a bit confused about Hamilton’s assertion that “the public image of those with literacy difficulties is often a negative one but we were not sure how this negativity was achieved or how to go about constructing alternative, ‘positive’ images” (19). It seems to me that illiteracy (and literacy difficulties) would inherently be viewed negatively as it creates a massive obstacle for understanding and participating in our literacy-based way of life. I was unable to see how Hamilton could overlook this facet of our literacy practices. Furthermore, I was really rather disillusioned by Hamilton’s suggestion that illiteracy or literacy difficulties might be viewed with “alternative, ‘positive’ images” (19). I feel that literacy difficulties and illiteracy are not things that should be viewed in a positive light. That would seem to perpetuate a regression in mass ability to understand, participate in and/or oppose a society rooted firmly in literacy. Certainly, however, those who may have literacy difficulties or who may be illiterate should not be viewed as individuals of lesser intelligence, just as individuals who maybe haven’t been given the proper chance to become “literate.”

I feel that literacy, at least in America, is a necessity. There are, of course, different and lovely cultures whose focus is not on its people’s ability to read and write (i.e. Papuan people), but in most, if not all, developed countries, reading and writing are crucial to being a successful citizen.

The image I chose for my portrayal of literacy was a picture of tax forms and a person filling them out. I will attempt to add the picture to my post.

This is culturally significant as every official job-holding American must pay taxes to the state and federal government. Taxes play a key part in maintaining American society. That being said, tax-paying individuals must understand how to read the form, read their W-2s, enter numbers, and answer each question appropriately. Taxes seem to require of each participant a rather solid foundation of literacy and an understanding of how to apply it. This is odd when you consider that taxes are required from every employed person in the US and not every employed person in the US is literate enough not to struggle with what it is tax forms are asking.

The participants for this are any tax-paying Americans. Now this becomes more interesting when you consider that the person in this picture might not be the specific individual who owes taxes, but rather a professional who does people’s taxes for them. While some people have rather more complex taxes to fill out than others, it’s still intriguing to ask what this says about our literacy regarding something as central as taxes.

The hidden participants for this act of literacy would be employers, state and federal government employees, perhaps tax assistance programs (Turbo-Tax) and of course, the ever-present IRS.

The setting in which this act of literacy takes place can vary. It can be done in the participant’s home, in a professional office, etc. The setting atmosphere, however, is probably slightly more stressful than average. The social purpose of filing taxes is to fulfill your civic duty, achieve a sense of contribution toward public works, government employees (i.e. local police) etc., and to remain free of criminal imprisonment.

Artefacts [sic] for this literacy act typically include a tax form, your W-2(s), a pencil or pen, the taxpayer, and some ibuprofen.

The activity: paying taxes.

 

Hi everyone! My name is Hailey Collord. I’m from Mount Shasta (which is up near the Oregon border), and my graduating class had less than 70 people in it, so coming to Chico in 2012 was a bit of a shock. I’m an English Studies major, and I’m trying to get a minor in Russian Language studies (though many in the Department of International Languages, Literatures, and Cultures are dragging their feet to get this minor up and running). I am graduating in the spring, and am getting married in June! Currently, I’m studying to take the LSAT in the beginning of October, and that’s been a bit stressful. Additionally, when I say “I’m studying” what I really mean is “I’m going to start studying soon.”

I was very interested in what we started talking about on Friday in relation to personal literacy and that correlation to family literacy practices. I read my first chapter book before my older sister did when I was in kindergarten. Interestingly, I would read books first, and then she would read them if I liked them. My sister, two years older than me, would actually use me as her guide for literacy. This struck me as odd in class when we were talking about the younger sibling typically shadowing the older sibling in regards to reading and writing. Of course, it may just be that she or I was an outlier in terms of how family literacy tends to spread. I would be very interested in examining the role of the sibling, younger or older, in family literacy. My parents constantly read to us when we were young, and they frequently engaged us in creative writing activities which is something that spurred me to develop my love for reading and writing. My sister, however, doesn’t seem to harbor the same passion, or even interest, for these activities that I do. This is another aspect of literacy in which I’m interested. Just how influential is a family on its members’ literacy practices? Does the influence only reach as far as the individual’s personal interest? Can family influence sway an individual’s preference toward “higher” literacy or “lower” literacy than that individual would’ve originally preferred?

Regarding my own literacy practices, I engage heavily in reading from novels of all genres, poetry, news, textbooks, letters, email, text messages, comments on articles and videos, subtitles on foreign films, blog posts on our class site, etc. I write essays, emails, short stories, poems, text messages, blog posts on our class site (or I will be), comments on articles, letters, etc. Having a working literacy, I’ve found, is something indispensable to me. I am nearly constantly in need of my abilities to read and to write. This is not to say, however, that every person is in need of the same level of literacy as everyone else. An excellent example in class arose when we talked about the level or different genre, so to speak, of literacy that would be practical for someone managing a farm or a ranch. That individual would likely have a greater interest in growing crops, managing livestock, and running equipment whereas they are probably less likely to hold a great interest in learning the merits and demerits of the Oxford comma.

What each person with a working literacy, that is to say at least a basic understanding of reading and writing, has in common is a knowledge of standard words and definitions that enables them to read and write. While I hesitate to sound traditionalist, I do have a mild predilection toward people learning to read, write, and speak in the same standard of language in which the rest of their countrypeople do at least at a basic level. However, this should not account for art or cultural traditions. Szwed brings an interesting example of this into his piece when he talks about “black poets…using unorthodox spellings and typography [that] have been dismissed as simply semiliterate…” (427). Art, in its purest sense, is an unadulterated expression of something as the artist feels it or chooses to express it. This should not be held to a standard form as that would undercut the purpose of art. Additionally, many cultures have various forms of literacy that help preserve their histories and traditions, and this too, should be allowed to flourish, though arguably not at the expense of those cultures’ abilities to communicate easily with the others who may be around them.

Literacy is an extremely hard thing to classify, and it’s even more difficult to standardize. I am very interested in seeing where this semester takes us into understanding literacy further. I hope to have my opinions challenged, and that I can grow and develop new ways of understanding literacy and how it affects us.

A scene from the movie Idiocracy (2006): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXzJR7K0wK0