Podcast by Deirdre D.
View Deirdre’s Original Task
View Deirdre’s Modebending Task
Though we approached our tasks using different genres, both of our productions are personal and telling of our identities, which Deirdre highlighted in her reflection, through commenting on her and my Task 1 posts, and in her own linking assignment back to my original and mode bending tasks.
My reaction to Deirdre’s Modebending:
Production and Tools
Deirdre created a podcast that was as engaging as it was authentic. A lot of digital productions are scripted and canned to some extent, but listening to Deirdre and her friend, I felt like I was there with them in the same room as an observer.
Both of our productions involved recording audio and editing, but I assumed my work was more edited (inclusion of voice and sound effects, returning to re-record the date) than Deidre’s, and I was correct in my assumption. I contacted her via her blog for more info about her production tools and process:
I used Audacity on my microsoft surface pro to record my conversation (the conversation was facilitated with an iphone, placed near the computer, on speaker mode).
Deirdre didn’t need anything more than her devices and Audacity, which is a free program, to record a brilliant podcast, which speaks to the accessibility of the production format for folks who want to get into producing their own podcasts – fancy sound recording and equipment are not required.
Literacies & Theories
Deirdre’s podcast production about the items Moms carry in their Mom pocket emphasizes the collective culture and discourse of Moms, an important but undervalued subculture. Deirdre recognizes that the items in her Mom Pockets™ (if it’s not trademarked, get on it, Deirdre!) are “what The New London Group (1996) might describe as the representation of a shared cultural context” because are Dad Pockets even a thing? (One of our classmates did title his Task 1 post as, “What’s in the bag, dad?” – because he carries a photo of his 17-year-old son when he was 3 – awwww!!!)
I’m not a mother, but I think that motherhood is one of the most difficult, beautiful, and brave jobs on the planet, but unfortunately, also one of the least respected, as the value of women’s work is unpaid and otherwise undervalued – see Women’s Unpaid Labor is Worth $10,900,000,000,000. I am curious about the world of motherhood and was immediately pulled into Deirdre and her friend’s conversation about what it means to be a Mom. Mom Pockets™ may seem like a kind of silly and trivial topic, but it is worth the insightful and in-depth discussion Deirdre and her friend give it, as Mom Pockets™ represent the role of mothers and are a glowing example of their care and love for their children. Mom Pockets™ embrace children’s curiosity about the world and are an ultimate sign of love and affection.
If you are a podcast listener, you know there’s a podcast for everyone about everything. The New London Group highlights this about our new media environment:
For example, one of the paradoxes of less regulated, multi-channel media systems is that they undermine the concept of collective audience and common culture, instead promoting the opposite: an increasing range of accessible subcultural options and the growing divergence of specialist and subcultural discourses (1996, p. 14)
Deirdre’s voice as a Mom and authentic, engaging “conversational language and the personae and relationships of ordinary life” (New London Group, 1996, p. 16) would be embraced with open arms and celebrated by the podcast community.
References
The New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review 66(1), 60-92.