Instructions: Use the image and description of what is in your bag to re-imagine the context of each item.
Dobson and Wilinsky’s (2009) argument that digital literacy means having the skill set not only to access digital technology but also to evaluate and use digital information in a critical way, led me to think about the output of my first task (what’s in your bag) as a piece of digital information that can be used as a starting point that could evaluated and transformed into new meanings.
My redesign for the what’s in your bag task is to take the image that has been produced and reimagine the context for each item. This redesign considers The New London Group’s (2006) idea that literacy must recognize multiple forms of communication and expression, allowing the audience of the task to re-interpret the information based on their cultural practices and existing knowledge.
To begin, I took each item in my glove box and did a word association activity with it. Without context, thinking about what purpose and place each item belongs to in my world. From there, I was able to also add the visual of the re-imagined purpose and place of each item.
In the first task, I explained my everyday use for these items and what they might say about me. In this redesign, I have put these items into new contexts, opening up these items to say something new or different about me. Other folks could take my image, one containing items they may not own or use in their daily lives, but still be able to contextualize these items to their own knowledge and cultural contexts.
From the perspective of an educator, assigning a similar task to my students would demonstrate their digital literacy, in their ability to access and evaluate digital information, and translate that information to their own personal context, evaluating the information for what it means to them.
I invite you guys to try it out – which context(s) do you associate with the items in my glove box? Let me know in the comments 🙂
References
Dobson, T., & Willinsky, J. (2009). Digital literacy. The Cambridge handbook of literacy, 286-312.
The New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review 66(1), 60-92.