Personal writing and reflection
Writing and Reflecting
This morning as I was reading through Bolter’s (2001) Writing space final two chapters, one quote resonated with me so much that I quickly wrote it down.
“The reflexive character of writing is emphasized; we write both to express, to discover, and to share who we are, and in a postmodern age our written identity is, like hypertext, dynamic, flexible, and contingent.”
I like nothing better than to slow down, take note, and reflect upon what I am learning, and it is often at the end of a course, when the required work has been completed that I feel I can luxuriate in the slowing down. Writing, for me, has always been an act of reflection and is becoming more of an act of sharing as I gain confidence in my skills.
It is sometimes surprising to read back the many posts and notes we have created throughout the term. I look at something I wrote, and like suddenly seeing a reflection in a mirror, I wonder, “Was that me?” with a note of disbelief, think “Did I say that?” As Bolter suggests, our written identity is truly dynamic, fluid and dependent on mitigating factors of busy lives, the competing needs for our attention, and the many, many distractions we see every time we go online, even if just for a moment. Teaching, parenting, working, studying, producing, oh yes, and even daily living –we fulfill a multitude of roles, sometimes gracefully, sometimes so inept.
Prior to starting this course, I had a superficial appreciation for text and how rapidly our world of reading and writing is changing. The chance to dive deeper into thinking about our culture through its oral traditions and moving forward into written technologies has been transformative. In teaching, I have so many questions about my students and the challenges that they face. Why are so many of my students (oftentimes boys) unable to write? What happens inside the brain as students try to read or write and have learning disabilities? How can my teaching practice embrace the oral skills and abilities that my students possess and communicate their learning in a much more multimodal fashion? What text technologies are available to us as teacher and student and how can we benefit from their inclusion in our learning? Which technologies will endure? How can deeper connections be formed, between learners, with subject material, with authentic audiences, wherever they are? In a TED talk by John McWhorter (recommended by Laura in our course), “txtng is killing our language,” he suggests that if we could go into the future and bring back snippets of language that we see there, perhaps we would gain a deeper appreciation of the wonderful ways that language is developing at this very moment in time. McWhorter says we are living in a “linguistic miracle, happening right under our very noses.” That is what I think about language and all the tools and technologies that we have at our disposal, from leather-bound journal and ink-filled pen, to laptop and desktop device for creating, publishing, collaborating and sharing, we are lucky– so incredibly fortunate to be living during this transformative time.
I have more questions than answers– if learning is meant to open our minds to new possibilities, then my only regret is that I need more time, more time to explore, more time to reflect about the ways our reading and writing spaces are changing.
Thanks to everyone who freely shared their learning and expertise throughout this term. Best wishes in future learning.
~Sandra
References:
Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print. Routledge.
McWhorter, J. (2013). Txtng is killing language. JK. Retrieved from internet http://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk.html
You are right… we have grown here. Your point is well taken that writing is a reflective exercise but increasingly an act of sharing. As our lives and learning forums becoming increasingly digital, those acts of sharing, such as on this blog, are going to become more publicly accessible. We are now reflecting and sharing to audiences intended and unintended. That too, I believe, will transform the nature of our writing. Finally, I completely agree – we need more time!