Mark Barrett – Shakespeare and Papyrus

Hi all.  My name is Mark Barrett and this is my 9th MET course.  I’m also taking 590 and thus these are my final 3 months (providing I don’t fail!) of completing my masters.  I am a high school teacher in North Vancouver where I also serve as the Athletic Director.  I love to travel and play sports – I just finished my first triathlon this summer!

Of all the courses available this term, I found this course the most compelling because the topic of literacy in all its forms, I believe, is of paramount importance for students and teachers alike.  By understanding the evolution of the spaces in which writing occurs we can then better assist our students in being articulate in multiple literacies.  This is clearly most evident now in digital literacy, but I think its important to also have a historical perspective and appreciation for where written literacy has come prior to this.

The image I chose to share from Flikr (above) depicts type written text from Shakespeares Sonnet 18, “Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer’s Day” – perhaps the most famous of all Shakespeare poems.  Shakespeare is renowned as probably the most famous of English playwrights and poets.  What really made the image stand out to me, however, was the image of the fern on the text.  To me it looked like papyrus, most notably used by the Egyptians for writing on, and more simply recalling for me the name of our first discussion forum; “From Papyrus to Cyber Space”.