Linking Assignment: Task 1 – What’s In Your Bag?

For task #1 (What’s in Your Bag), I’ve chosen to link to Tyler Graham’s In my school bag task.  Tyler’s task 1 post was the first post I reviewed in ETEC 540 and I chose to link to it because his image closely resembled my own (especially what my own school bag would’ve looked like a decade ago when I was still teaching high school science and math in a synchronous, online environment).

Tyler and I are from a similar generation in that we both “grew up analog but came of age digital” (Graham, 2020); and so, Tyler’s bag reflects that blend (or conflict) between print and digital-based literacies.

Tyler continues to teach, whereas I have moved into higher ed.  Additionally, my life is (mostly) consumed by family (and so I chose to present my ‘purse’ or personal bag rather than my work bag).  What’s interesting to note though, is despite the differences in the contents of the bag (teaching-related versus personal), both Tyler and I still prefer to surround ourselves with print-based materials (though we carry digital materials out of necessity).  And so, if I were to come across both our bags, I would assume the owners of these bags felt a certain comfort with print perhaps suggesting that print holds more value or prominence than the digital.  Thus, it appears that the two of us demonstrate a stronger attachment to print literacies rather than digital literacies- though both are present on our sites.

I think both Tyler’s post and my own post speak to the conflict noted in Bolter (2001, Chapter 4), Kress (2005) and Dobson & Willinsky (2009) where, through technology, literacy moves beyond ‘simple’ text toward more multimodal literacies and representations of ideas.  Print or linguistic literacies have been absorbed by the digital, which provides room for visual or image-based literacies to take more center-stage.  Further, we can now digitally adapt and manipulate text to form new representations of ideas through sound (sonification) and data visualization (graphic or spatial literacies).  The fact that both posts openly discuss the comfort we share in writing things down (the act of writing is reassuring) hints at our shared discomfort in moving toward the New London Group’s (1996) definition of multiliteracies.  (Later posts demonstrate growth as the course has progressed, however, this initial post highlights the importance of print-based literacy to Tyler and I).

Tyler’s informal tone allows the reader to feel as though they are a part of a conversation rather than reading an academic blog post; this encourages the reader to comment, ask questions and interact with the content within Tyler’s post.  This may be off-putting to some if they are looking for more academic-sounding prose, but I find it more inviting and interesting.

Part of the reason I didn’t return to Tyler’s page until recently, was that I couldn’t easily find his posts (they weren’t linked to his name in the link provided to us in Canvas); I ended up clicking on the link to Task 1 again, and was then able to find the rest of his links.  This might discourage others from seeking out Tyler’s subsequent posts (which seems to be the case)-especially if they find navigating website particularly challenging (or if they use a screen reader), however, once I figured out how to navigate his blog, it was fine.

Tyler teaches French so it only makes sense that he would switch the language of WordPress to French.  That’s a great idea! I do not speak French (though I can navigate well enough).  I think this would work well if he were to use his WordPress site as a teaching tool with his students or colleagues.  If our classmates can’t understand French, however, they might find it a bit more challenging to navigate; if they have a general idea of how WordPress sites work though, most users would be able to navigate Tyler’s site with relative ease.

Again, the open-ended nature of this course allows students to take each task and make it their own.  Task 1 was pretty straightforward, however, if you take  quick look at how Tyler rearranged the way in which he presented his content for Task 7 versus my own ‘new’ interpretation, you’ll note the divergence in our ideas.  Being able to adapt a task and take it in the direction that makes to each student, is invaluable.  Further, by posting it to WordPress where classmates can see each other’s ideas, we become more open to these other ideas and interpretations of our assigned tasks.

Kress (2005), Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learningLinks to an external site.. Computers and Composition, Vol. 2(1), 5-22.