Multiliteracies in ELA Classrooms

I chose this photo for a variety of different reasons. When I typed “new technology” into the search bar I wasn’t exactly sure as to what I was looking for. I have grown up in this technology world and I was trying just to find a photo that spoke to me. This was one of the first that showed up. It caught my eye first and foremost for its color, the orange jumped off the page and intrigued me. The second reason I choose it is that it made me smile. I have done some traveling through South East Asia and have met and spoke to many monks. When I asked about their lifestyles they always spoke of simplicity and nature, along with meditation would help lead us all to calm and serene lives. These monks were mostly older men, much older in years then myself, and I believed them to be so wise. However, these 2 boys are obviously a new generation of monks. They are a perfect mixture of the old and new world. They are embracing the dress and appearance of monks of generations past, and holding what I can only assume as a cell phone, they are showing that the future is also apparent in their world.

Through our teaching and within our lives we have a pull from the old and the new. Our students are going to be leaps and bounds ahead of many of us when it comes to technology, however, with many of us being comfortable using actual books, and simpler methods to teaching I can see a great relation between the old and new world happening in our classrooms. Even on my own, I know that I am not 100% competent in this technology age and am looking forward to learning more throughout LLED 368, and being able to relate these skills not only into my own life, but also into my teaching.

This photo is a great representation of the way the world is moving. When I first saw it I thought it was a new version of that old trick of hiding your magazine or comic in a novel so that no one knows what you’re really reading – but now the trick is to hide your electronic book (I quickly realized that this in fact is not what the picture shows). However, it made me laugh because there is a bit of a stigma around e-readers and the lack of authenticity when reading from an electronic source (Of course, they cannot replace the wonderful sensation of flipping old, ripped pages and smelling that old book smell). I have even seen commercials defaming e-books, saying that they will cause the end of the written word and the death of the author. It annoys me when I hear things like that because since I bought an e-reader, I have bought and read more books than ever in my life. I believe that these new technological mediums for literature have been and will continue to be more and more effective in things like sharing, spreading and enjoying.

I chose this photo because not only is it important for us to remember and teach how to use the old methods, like looking up a word in a great big paper dictionary, but also the new. In this modern world we cannot look at technology as a threat, but rather as an aid, a way to make our lives easier and possibly better. I am excited to be taking this course because I love the idea of learning new and exciting way to bring modern ideas into the classroom.

This passage from Robin Hood was first printed somewhere between 1510 to 1515. The woodcut itself shows the first likeness of Robin Hood. Now, over five hundred years later, the character of Robin Hood has appeared in various texts, television shows, films and games. Digital media has the potential to both preserve and evolve stories. Although most children would not have read the original text of Robin Hood, they will be familiar with the character through his appearance in the 1973 Disney film Robin Hood which has been aired on television numerous times.

Digital media and other new mediums have the ability to link past and present and to make teaching about the past that much more relevant to young students. It is my hope that I learn new strategies and methods of integrating new media into my lesson plans through my time in the LLED 368 “Multiliteracies in English Language Arts Classrooms” course.

The poster “slworking2” dubbed this photo “Conference call flow in vacation mode at the office”, one of his series entitled “Hard(ly) at work”. I posted this as a play on the idea of “fastcapitalism” from this week’s reading and Marx’s idea of “gegensätzliche Bewegung” (structural contradictions) from his critique of capitalist economics, “Das Kapital”. The new workplace attitude embodied by the photo is what I want to draw attention to, in particular the new corporate subculture of informality, said by the authors of the article to be partly a result of “flattened hierarchies”, which presupposes a shared cultural context, expertise and register. If you notice the details, from the man’s posture to the clothing/footwear to the nerd-hipster wit displayed around the cubicle, it’s not hard to feel somewhat estranged. The authors of the article suggest that the diversity and democracy (and other such buzzwords) that technology is said to enable, masks the counter-intuitive potential that the very informality that arises becomes even more “rigorously exclusive” than the old paradigm. Personally, I don’t know any programming languages or play video games or spend much time on the Internet, except when I’m doing research, so for me the Silicon Valley discourse one finds in movies like “The Social Network” seems much like the discourse of Wall Street or any other corporate discourse, in that it is meant to mark its adherents out from the rest.

As for myself, I shared in class last time the fact I’ve been busy writing screenplays since I graduated in 1995, and teaching literary analysis and essay writing to high school kids to pay my rent and food, only to realize I actually prefer teaching. So once I graduate from the program, I would like to teach obviously… I’m just not sure yet in what context. I don’t think the private system is for me anymore, although I have my reservations about the public system as well.

As far as the course goes, so far I am very happy to report that I know next to nothing about multiliteracies, and if the first reading and syllabus are anything to go by, I am excited by the prospect of what’s to come!