Journal #3: Multimodal Pedagogies and Trajectories of Remixing

After reading through Chapters 1 and 2, I found myself familiar with some of the terminology being used. The discussion that blogs and other social media usage in the classroom are platforms that should be incorporated into everyday usage is not all that new. Through my few years of teaching I’ve learned to incorporate blogging, social media, Google and a variety of other technologies into my classrooms. As quoted in Chapter One: Multimodal Pedagogies by: Lalitha Vasudevan, Tiffany Dejaynes, and Stephanie Schmier express, “blogging is more exciting than a journal because people can appreciate writing more if it’s in a book” (p.30). This quote seems to hold some truth to it especially with the younger generations. We are finding that students do not necessarily enjoy reading books but, are more inclined to choose shorter reading passages- magazine articles, newspaper articles or even a blog posts online. Students are hooked because these pieces of writing are relevant to their lives; they can feel a sort of connection and it allows them to be engaged in what they are learning.

Within Chapter One: Multimodal Pedagogies, Section: Multimodal Play we find a discussion about making our space by engaging MySpace and YouTube. This section raises an interesting point, “[…] youth of his generation- are more inclined to share online profile information than phone numbers” (p. 31). This shift that is occurring is so small in the large scheme of things but, it is interesting to point out that this shift is happening. There are times that I too find myself saying to people, “Find me on Facebook” instead of simply passing out my phone number. In a way, I too am placing myself in a virtual reality always having to rely on technology as a means of escaping a phone or face to face interaction. It is rather interesting to think about how many of us now-a-days are more likely to share our online profiles- profiles that contain photos, thoughts, and people we hold dear to our hearts. Why is it that we feel comfort in these social networking platforms and are not afraid of what they could do to us if placed into the wrong hands?

I asked my class to do a similar experiment to that of Mr. Norman’s (p. 32); I handed out iPads to the students and asked them to pull up any online profile of themselves that they wished to share. After doing so, I asked students to create a t-chart- on the left they were to describe their online persona, on the right they were to describe their real life self. After students completed those two tasks, I asked them to jot down the similarities and differences they found between their two personas. Did they represent themselves differently online?  After closely analyzing our online v. offline personas many students came to find that the way they represented themselves online was different than the way they conducted themselves in real life. I asked students to think closely about if the way we portray ourselves online accurately represents who we are, what we believe in, and what we stand for. This was an interesting experiment and I would encourage you to try something similar in your classrooms.

            Having students blog in class is an interesting means of teaching- many educators do it, including myself and it allows for me to teach my students how to become digitally literate all the while teaching them how to become active participants in a world that teaches them to be passive. Within the two chapters we read, I found there to be a disconnect between the educators and students. The educators seem to be lacking the necessary skills needed in order to be digitally literate in the cases provided in Chapter 2: Trajectories of Remixing. If we are to teach students the necessary skills needed to succeed, we too must be literate in what we are teaching them.

Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (Eds.). (2013). New Literacies Reader: Educational Perspectives (pp. 23- 56). United States: Peter Lang Publishing.