Task 7 Mode –  Bending Reflects

Redesigned- What’s in your bag? Tactile audio:

Challenge:

Guess what’s in my bag based on the sound it makes when I interact with it.

So were you able to guess the objects from my bag, based on the sounds they made when I interacted with them? (The answers are below if you weren’t 100% sure).  I’m curious about your interactions with the audio presentation. Was meaning made with this mode of media? Did the tactile description words that I used help you to visual the object? Did my description of how the objects make me feel while using them, help to make connections with the objects? Did you notice that I tried to use alliteration?

This was an interesting challenge indeed. I’m not great at thinking outside of the box and I’m not a huge fan of redoing tasks. I tried to use the New London’s Group (1996) ‘Mode of Meaning with my audio recording by using tactile words and feelings to increase the integrated meaning for the listener.  I found the audio recording quite frustrating because I would make errors with my words and have to start over, touching again on my lack of enthusiasm about redoing tasks. I had to re-record at least five times before I was somewhat satisfied with the final product.

When considering the readings, Canvas lesson, and videos I absolutely agree that multi-literacies aren’t going anywhere.  The New London Group (1996), states that we need to “rethink what we are teaching, and, in particular, what new learning needs literacy pedagogy might now address (p.61)”. I found the video A Vision of Students Today quite poignant and was excellent evidence for the changing needs of students. I attended a conference this week where the speaker Dr. Lara Ragpot from Trinity Western University also spoke about the changing needs of literacy in a world where multi-media is vying for the attention of people more than ever before.  I see these issues reflect in my own life and in the life of my three teenagers. We no longer seem to have the attention span to even sit through an episode of survivor without reaching for our phones. I think it’s the Tik Tok effect, we have become programmed to be able to swipe to the next piece of information 10-17 seconds. My main concern about this, is the fact that these audio-visual modes are taking place mostly on personal devices, often isolating the user from the people around them.

I do think that audio-visual modes are currently dominating written modes, however, I agree with Dobson and Willinsky (2009) that the onset of digital literacy is an evolution and extension of traditional print-literacy practices, not a revolution.

Answers to the challenge:

1. My fidget friend- the pen
2. The tea bag, then a soothing sip of tea
3. The wooly bag
4. A book

References:

Dobson and Willinsky. (2012). Digital Literacy. In Cambridge Handbook of Literacy (pp. 286-303). Cambridge University Press.

Ragpot, L. (2023, October). The Complex Nature of Mental Health Challenges in the Classroom [Conference session]. ACSI Western Canada, Calgary, AB.

The New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. (Links to an external site.) Harvard Educational Review 66(1), 60-92.