Some content understandings that I walk away with from this class are the following: a strong understanding of the difference between interactive and the represented participant (2007, Kress and van Leeuwen), how to engage in participatory culture as an educator (2006, Jenkins). To start off, I referenced Kress and van Leeuwin's chapter on representation and interaction so many times in my essays and in my teaching practices, I no longer needed to look at the chapter for direct quotes. At first, I had a difficult time understanding the various "gazes" images can carry, so when I began teaching visual literacy to my 9th grade ELA class, we struggled together to really dissect the meaning of some of the images and advertisements. Gazes, as Kress and van Leeuwen explain, that demand some reaction from the viewer are called a "demand" image. These images usually make direct or eye level contact with the viewer. Offer images demand less of the viewer, instead they offer information. Many of the advertisements my students an I deconstructed were "offer" images. I incorporated my understanding of visual literacy even further when I had my my students discuss the power of advertisements through the use of ethos, pathos, and logos. Further on in the class, we got into discussing the benefits of participatory culture. Jenkins made strong arguments about the impact participatory culture has on its young participants and the benefits that it gives way when participants become adults. When Jenkins points out that participatory culture shifts literacy from individual expression to community involvement, I was inspired to include more collaboration via partcipatory culture in my class. I began thinking about the activities and strategies that involve collaboration via new media and discussion. It was Jenkin's discussion of participatory culture that inspired me to implement blogs in my 9th grade classroom.
A-ha Moments
One of the A-ha moments I had during the semester was after reading Motoko's (2008) Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?. The text discusses the literacy debate with regards to the development of new media. Literacy has always been defined, through much of my schooling, as your ability to read and write, and the internet was a detriment to the development of it. However, Motoko's persuasive arguments opened up a new perspective for me. Perhaps, "Internet Reading," did not have to be measured by the same literacy standards, perhaps it was a new type of literacy, valid in its own way. Motoko shows that literacy online requires more than comprehending the text, it involved interacting with it. This was my A-ha moment. New Literacy means new skills, and perhaps even more complex skills. Reading and writing are still involved but, so is so much more. Not only was reading and writing, regardless of content, happening more online, students were choosing to do so. Teachers need not be afraid that the Internet would become the demise of literacy; the Internet was its own separate animal and should be treated as such. Moreover, the Internet could be used as a tool to teach traditional literacy standards as well. Students are still reading, writing, but now they're collaborating, researching, revising and critiquing a variety of written texts. Skills seen as worthy in any effective English Class.
Questions I'm left with
Some questions that I'm left with are in regard to how I can further effectively implement New Media and Digital Media in the classroom. Particularly, how do I measure new literacy skills, what rubrics could I implement? Where can I find more information and guides that address new literacy standards in the classroom? What are some strategies and activities other educators have used to implement new literacy and media in the classroom?
Impacts
This class has had major impact on both my education at Empire State and as my practice as a Teacher. Readings from Kress and van Leeuwen (2007), particularly have impacted my teaching the most. As a undergraduate, I took various classes in linguistics and have always tried to implement elements of critical literacy and linguistics into my classroom; however, I rarely thought about the visual world. Kress and van Leeuwen discuss what the world looks like to the visually literate, and I want my students to be visually literate. One major insight from Reading Images (2007), was the chapter written on Representation and Interaction. Kress and van Leeuwen point out how our cultural understanding and social constructions impact the way we view an image, and can drastically vary the meaning and message of an image. Usually the reader of the image is passive; however, when we think about new media, the reader becomes interactive. They no longer passively observe the world with their cultural lens, now they interact with it. I used my understanding from these readings to implement critical literacy activities in my own teaching.
Works Cited
Kress and van Leeuwen, “Reading Images,
The Grammar of Visual Design”, Routledge, New York, NY, 2007
Motoko, R. (2008, July 27). Literacy
Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? New York Times. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
