Hello y’all, I’m Mel Drake. To tell you more about myself, I’ve created an interactive image with a wee bit of text using Genially. To interact with the image and learn more about each of the items I carry with me, just mouse over the green icons. If there’s an issue with the image embed and it’s not loading for you, please click the link below. *Thanks to Deirdre for letting me know there was an issue!
https://view.genial.ly/5ffc8f00a2847a0da0f1ff33/interactive-image-whats-in-my-bag
Full disclosure, I haven’t carried a daily bag since before lockdown last March, and so I’ve curated these personal belongings to represent who I am and what I want to share with others. The items as a collection become a text that shares a version of my daily life which revolves mostly around my interests and free time instead of my life as a full-time graduate student in an online program. This version of my daily bag is also shaped by the pandemic which has canceled hanging out in public spaces like coffee shops or libraries for long periods of time to work or study, and so the items I use when studying such as a laptop and notebooks are notably absent. Also absent are the loose scrap pieces of paper, notes, and receipts and little found mementos I collect when I come across them.
What does my bag
say about me?
I’m an American living in Canada and an educator addicted to Burt’s Bees who loves travel, music, card games, photography, the outdoors, observing and identifying bird and insect life, and collecting coins. Further explanation and inspection to connect these objects together are required to create a more complex narrative.
I find joy in the discovery of new things, and the real-life version of Pokémon I play to collect all the coins, insects, birds, and other fauna and flora is my way of connecting to and learning about my new home and the places I visit.
What text technologies are present and what literacies can be identified?
The text technologies – the writing devices (pencil, pen, highlighter, dry erase markers), the bird ID book, travel documents (passport, travel/immigration cards in protective sleeve), mobile phone, and mirrorless DSLR camera – show that I communicate using traditional text mediums and computer-based and image-based mediums. From reading these belongings, it can be inferred that I have literacies that involve technology, photography, and the natural environment.
Though some of the objects curated (loupe, birds book) are becoming increasingly obsolete to me, they represent an interest or hobby in a more tangible way than the technology that has replaced them (camera lenses, DSLR, apps such as iNaturalist, eBird, and Merlin, and social media affinity groups for insects and birds).
What would an archaeologist say?
An archaeologist of the future would be able to identify me as a person who lived in Canada and the U.S. in the late 20th century and beginning of the 21st century during a time of technological transition from analog to digital and might be able to identify me as a Gen Xer on the cusp of being a Millenial. Upon inspection of the coins I carry and the contents of my wallet and passport, they would also know I’ve traveled to México, the Dominican Republic, Europe, and the UK. They’d identify me as a student from my student ID, an educator from faculty ID, a reader from my library cards, and further as a person who enjoys flora and fauna from my parks and butterfly conservatory passes.
Bags of my past
15 years ago, I was a second-year teacher, and I carried an enormous and bulky district-issued backpack packed with the district-issued laptop, personal laptop, materials I prepped at home to teach for the day, and manila file folders of student work to take home and mark, plus a purse. I would have also been carrying my lunch, snacks, Coke Zeros, and various personal hygiene products, headache medication, and a month’s worth of feminine products to supply me and my students. My car would have also functioned as an extension of my bag for all the things I needed that I couldn’t possibly carry with me – sports and workout gear for extracurriculars, extra clothes and shoes just in case. I would have had a mobile phone but not a smartphone, and I would have needed to carry my DSLR for photography since my little flip phone took horrible photos.
25 years ago, I was a sophomore in high school, and my bag would have only carried textbooks, a big 3 ring binder, and notebooks, with more loose papers crumpled into the bottom of the bag than I probably care to admit.