Hi Dana,
AHH! I just watched that movie last night! I usually watch true crime or docuseries, so this movie was a nice change of pace! There were scenes where I almost cried!
We are in such an exciting time right now because I agree students should be able to read and express themselves in a way others understand. When I was a student, teachers always had to remind me to use words to express myself – verbally or in written form. Through the years, I’ve strengthened this skill, but I find that some memes or emojis can say precisely how I feel, and I don’t have to use words to share that emotion. Should students be allowed to use emojis in paragraphs and essays? Would students be deemed incompetent when asked to write a reflection piece and hand in a piece of writing when a few emojis are sprinkled throughout? Emailing our clients with emojis or memes is considered unprofessional in the corporate world. As mentioned above, with these students who have trouble expressing themselves entering the corporate world, how will they adapt, or will we have to redefine professionalism?
Reflection:
Dana brings a different view than what I thought of when I completed my assignment. I haven’t beehaven’tcher for a while, so I guess I’m out of I’mch with what students are like now. She mentioned that her students can express themselves with emojis better than we can. This is probably because they are using emojis more frequently than we are. At least for me, I grew up where teachers required us to use words to express ourselves intellectually and emotionally. Perhaps it is acceptable for students to use emojis or other art forms to express themselves.
I agree with Bolter that our texts enhanced with visuals and hypertexts are becoming more popular (2001). This way of producing text has made its way to the corporate setting where I work. Part of my job is to publish official notices to all our clients. Because the statement’s content is very compact and detailed, we have included hyperlinks to other documents. We sometimes include visuals within the notice to help our clients understand the information’s fuller context. For this assignment, our visuals were emojis, but in the working world, visuals include graphs and charts. In the corporate setting, we use graphs and charts to help us explain more complex topics. Not only does this help visual learners grasp the idea, but it also helps everyone understand the issue quickly. With the help of computers, we can view documents and open hyperlinks and other graphics easily. Back then, pictures were not easily attached to the document when papers were handwritten or typed with a typewriter. This took the reader extra effort to flip, compare, and comprehend these resources. Now we have a computer screen that can open all forms of visuals so readers can refer to the documents side-by-side.
Reference:
Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print (2nd ed). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
