Task 7 | Mode-Bending
This week’s task asks us to re-design the “What’s in your bag?” submission using an audio format. I spent a long going back and forth between Task 1 and the reading, clueless about how I can accomplish this task. Then, I thought of the task statement “think of the original purpose of the task” and recalled Ernesto’s comment on my submission, “The idea of reading yourself through the artifacts.” I can finally see a solid connecting line: The bag items reflects each one’s unique world (background, languages, interests, cultures, roles, and so forth). Below is my attempt for the new “Resigned” that I have titled “My bag: A mirror of my ..,” symbolizing my being, my daily life, my culture and more through the items inside my bag.
Music Retrieved from: Free Music Archive: Turkish and Omar Khairat MP3 Songs (melody4arab.com)
| Fabric fits onto the lower part of the face; Respiration is seized inside. A hand reaches on to grasp an odour that tastes Bitter; washes off the surface like a tide. A door swings, and the sunlight is beaming from the outside. It goes swaying closed, from open to shut, it glides. Picked into a lock, a pendulum dangles, side to side. Lights flash, buttons push, motion spins onto the roadside. An office, light dull, work neatly sits. Type, Type bits and bytes processes rapidly. Eyes flap like wings towards a stationary kit. Scribble, pencils, sharp as darts, twirl on paper thoughtfully. Lines draw on dozens of sheets, evenly and boldly striking across, Coiled together, a page flutters to another. A block, two blocks away, two roads to cross. In a room, lights shine, and dentures display, there, stood a mother. Stretching between teeth, an elastic is drawn to the mother’s eyes. A daughter will soon sense the excruciating pain of the rubber band, swimming in her gums. A purse unbuttons itself, and a card is lent to a machine, that on a counter, lies. The machine assures an agreement that hums. Sliding outside, a bill arrives with symbols encrypted in black. Gratitude leaves the room in footsteps that follow the mother home. Off, parched, violet lips, lipstick smudges, to and fro, front and back. Now assignments delegate and effort would roam; Paper crumples, pressure grows and stacks. Once all is settled and eyes are wary, A phone speaks in various languages, such intimacy brings joy. Laughter fills the room, culture is merry; In warm languages, all can enjoy. |
Reflection
The New London Group (1996) explained that designing “is never simply a repetition of Available Designs” (p.75); in contrast, it involves transformation by making innovation of old materials. With this new understanding, I forced my brain to think creatively instead of conventionally. For that, I needed to push the logical me away and step out of the comfort zone to change the expression mode and compose a poem about the items in my bag and their symbolic roles in my life. I tried to follow the well-known AB AB format (two two-line stanzas, with the first lines rhyming at the end and the second lines rhyming at the end) while writing the poem; my main helper (cheat sheet) was the well-known “RyhmeZone.” I would like to highlight that I am not a person with linguistic intelligence or poetically gifted so please forgive me for all types of mistakes (including the wrong pronunciations).
According to the New London Group (1996), the most significant semiotic mode is a combination of several modes embracing multiliteracies. My recreation is a multimodal representation that rests on linguistic (metaphors and rhythms), audio (voice, sound effects, and music), visual (drawing the object/animation), and gestural (feelings and affect) designs. I was drawn to the cultural resources and subjectivity highlights in the New London Group (1996); “the Redesigned is founded on historically and culturally received patterns of meanings” (p.76). Thus, I chose the background music for “Omar Khairat“, the well-known Egyptian musician and end up the production with “Seyyah – Çeçen Kizi”, from the Turkish traditional/historical music. I was also keen to embed Arabic and English into the receipt image, representing the main languages spoken in the United Arab of Emirates (where I currently work); I can speak these languages. Similarly, I thought of my iPhone as an item that speaks my languages (text /voice) and ties me with family members in different places. Along the way, this multimodal creation encapsulates a slow path to the emotional and imaginative mind that shades within the writing compositions and the rational qualities of my job, and that personally surprises me.
I employed Vyond to complete the task. I am not quite savvy in its use, but I wanted to expand my digital literacy. The choice was based on my needs; along with the poem narration, I wanted to communicate my ideas with illustrative figures, making the abstract statements concrete. Additionally, I used the tool to edit sound, control the audio volume, and create multilayer sounds; I am inexperienced at this design area and I sharpened my technical skills (at a small-scale) throughout this simple design.
Overall, I gained several benefits and insights throughout this task. Firstly, I achieved something outside of the scope of my typical conventional thinking. Secondly, the experience was a juxtaposition and integration of the four components of pedagogy. I ran into situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, transformed practice to complete the design process. Lastly, it alludes to makerspace education research suggesting that technological developments are rich sites for developing multimodal designs. In my situation, Vyond served as a useful starting point to facilitating a semiotic mode (audio design) beyond my capabilities. Though the outcome might not be perfect as for now. However, by taking an iterative approach in the development, I can continue to make minor improvements in this aspect using various environments, which may lead to significant advances in the long run.
Final Thoughts
In his ground-breaking book entitled “The world is flat,” describing the remote and global qualities in all of our life aspects due to the technological revolution, Friedman (2005) stated that we have moved from a “connected to hyperconnected” world. Intricately related to the globalized connectedness is the fact that the classrooms are getting increasingly diverse. The notion of “multiliteracies” in the New London Group (1996) reading begs educators and decision-makers to extend beyond the traditional notion of literacy and operate in terms of extensive multiplicities. They shed light on how the individual and collective levels are now blurred, and historical, cultural, and technoscientific processes are thoroughly intertwined. Beyond, or better, before, the question “who, what, and how of the notion of multiliteracies or 21st-century literacies?” lies a question about the essentialist and humanist traditions dominating the educational practices. These approaches failed to ensue a holistic view, one that brings in very different cultural perspectives of learning and knowing and clearly failed to deal with the complex notions of literacies (Kuby, 2019). In an increasingly complex world that is becoming more global, technological, and diverse, a key perspective to consider in the conception of literacies is that “no culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive” (Mahatma Gandi in Chakrabarti, 1992). The future depends on multiliteracies that operate from an intensive multiculturalism concept and on more holistic and inclusive theories and practices for all learners.
References
- Chakrabarti, M.(1992). Ghandian humanism. New Delhi, India: Concept Publishing Company
- Friedman, T.L.(2005). The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty first century. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
- Kuby, C. R. (2019). (Re)imagining multiliteracies research practices with post qualitative inquiry. In
N. Kucirkova, J. Rowsell, & G. Falloon (Eds.),The routledge international handbook of learning with technology in early childhood (pp. 127–142). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315143040 - The New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review 66(1), 60-92.
Marwa, you’re an inspiration! You keep learning and growing from week to week, sky is the limit. Love the poem and the visuals!
Thank you, Olga, for your kind comment. After watching, my young daughter told me if she was given the same task, she would be doing something similar to Dora’s backpack song/movie scene and use a parody generator instead. It is fascinating how the young ones outshine classical thinking nowadays?