My name is Kelvin Nicholls and this is what is in my daily messenger bag. I take this bag with me almost everyday. This bag houses all of the essential gear and supplies that I need in order to be effective and efficient in two different lifeworlds that I am currently living in. Simple in contents, I feel that this bag is a symbolic narrative of exactly who I am. I tend to live a life based on essentials, without the need for clutter and complexity. I enjoy feeling the light weightedness of my bag, knowing that I have everything that I need to be successful in what I am doing each day. The contents of this bag are thoughtful for my current life needs and knowing that I have these essentials is key to my feeling of comfort throughout my day.

I am an elementary school teacher, teaching in a grade 3 and grade 4 combined learning community. For my role as a teacher, this bag is foundational as the starting point for everything in my day. My car keys and wallet provide me with the means for transportation to school without stress or anxiety. Since I am an early riser and usually the first to my school, my school keys allow me the ability to open the school and access my classroom when the time is right for me. The pens, pencils, and highlighters in my bag allow me the flexibility of writing lists and notes whenever the moment strikes. And finally, the band-aids in my bag are essential for myself and my students as a precautionary measure when we are out on walks around the neighbourhood or to our community garden.

I am also a graduate student in the MET program at UBC. For this role in my present life, this bag contains the simple but principal components for success in this area. Since the program is online, my MacBook allows me the ability to work on my coursework from any location. And to avoid any “range” anxiety, I always carry around an extra charging cord to keep my computer powered. My bluetooth mouse connects to my computer to quicken my on-screen movements and increase productivity. And finally, my EarPods allow me to get lost in broadway musical soundtracks and movie scores to clear my mind and focus my thinking.

Understanding the word “texts” is an essential piece of literacy learning that I look into every year with my grade 3 and 4 students. We investigate this term in order to gain a deeper understanding of the diversity of the word. Through discussion and brainstorming, we always discover that texts are anything that communicates meaning. And as time has gone on, the definition of “texts” has continued to change and will always be dynamic, especially with the evolutionary continuity of technology. In my messenger bag, there are many examples of texts. If you were to open up my wallet, you would find many things in credit card shape that include text and convey meaning. For example, you would find my driver’s license. My driver’s license contains all of my personal information (weight, height, eye colour, hair colour, sex, address, date of birth), along with my driver’s license number that is tied directly to me. In this one card, an abundance of information is being communicated through typed text.

In terms of “text technologies”, my MacBook fills this definition for my bag. My MacBook is the only piece of digital technology that I carry around in my messenger bag. It allows me access to all the technological tools that I need in order to engage in regular communication.  This communication comes in many different forms, including: email, messenger services, video conferencing, and various online platforms (such as Canvas). My MacBook also makes the cloud readily available, which is essential for both my professional teaching life and graduate student life. The digital cloud allows me to have continuous and updated access to everything that I work on from any computer and any location.

When diving into the items in my messenger bag, I realized that my professional and student life relies on my proficiency in digital or computer literacy. My MacBook is the central hub for the majority of what I do throughout my day when it comes to teaching and being a graduate student. It is always the first tool I grab when I am sitting down to be efficient with my work. Reflecting on this, I realise that 15 or 20 years ago, this bag would have looked very different. It was not efficient or smart to rely so much on computer or digital literacies and tools to be productive in our everyday lives. There would have been a need for more physical note-taking tools and other text technologies to effectively get things done as a teacher or a student.

In the future, a bag like mine might provide an archaeologist with information about society’s reliance on cloud-based services and technology in general. The simplicity of my bag allows my MacBook to stand out as the main text component. The reliance on digital and technology tools is always an interesting area to reflect on. In the evolution of technology, it is hard to know how things will progress. Will technology continue to go the direction of cloud and server-based data, or will we learn that these tools are not as safe as they seem and change direction and habits?