Week 3 Assignment

Learning Activities:

Enter a reflective journal entry post on your blog. Pick a topic or issue from the readings that struck you as interesting, important, confusing, etc. and reflect on it in by responding to the following prompts:

1. What is / are the tools and techniques (or new skills) being put into practice?
2. What is / are the key issue(s) outlined in or underlying the text (think in terms of Green’s model: operational, cultural and critical)?
3. Why do you think Green used the visual model to represent his ideas of the 3 dimensions of Literacy.  How does the relational visual "hierarchical structure" serve the taxonomy of levels?  How might you use visually structure Jenkins "New Digital Literacies" ?  How many times have you laid out information in a relational conceptual representation to clarify meaning? Share some examples.
4. Be sure to reference the reading including author and page number.

     To be honest, I am a bit confused. I do find the reading to be a bit overwhelming and difficult to follow, at times. I find that I learn much quicker by listening and by doing rather than reading. So naturally, I enjoyed listening to Mr. Jenkins speak; his video was easy to follow and understand. I like how he walked us through many years of change and how participatory culture has needed to grow and develop with all of the new media and literacy change. Some of the new tools and techniques he spoke of included; social networking (facebook, myspace etc, etc), learning through popular culture and groups that are created based on a unique interest (Harry Potter / bowling) that develop into something greater. The Harry Potter lovers developed into a large community that supported a huge donation mission to Haiti. 

     Kress and van Leeuwen talk about the many different charts, graphs, images and diagrams that are used throughout our world. Things started to click for me when they said, "In other words, the identity of an individual (or a species) is represented as being "subordinate"to its "origins" or "ancestors" in the same way as specific concepts are subordinated to more general and abstract concepts, and lower employees or local bodies to managers or central organs" (pg. 82). When they broke their explanation down like this is started to make sense to me. Many images are broken down so that when you look at them the "powerful" or most important thing is on top and then the less important images are on the bottom. I beleive this is why many flow charts and organizational charts were used to resemble this thought. They start at the top with the most important thought or image and trickle down with the less imoportant images or ideas. I believe this way of outlining and breaking down images is important and easy to follow. I am a bit touched with OCD and like when things are "just so" and have an easy to follow structure. 

     When you look at Green's diagram; "approach to literacy" you don't see a "top to bottom" or "trickle" down flow. This leads me to believe that each component (Operational, Cultural, and Critical) of the diagram should be considered equal. The three circles are overlapping and that, to me, shows that they are all linked to one another, somehow. Green states that, "the interface of those three overlapping concepts creates a meaning of Learning" (pg.1). Green uses this diagram to show equal parts that combine to create learning, using and analyzing but Jenkins could definitly use a hierachical structure when it comes to outlining the New Digital Literacies. He used a chart showing how little we had in he 1850's (toy printing press) all the way to current times (web and radio). He could organize his ideas about participatory culture and how it has grown over the years due to change in technology by using a hierachial structure; he could have the internet at the top and then trickle down the structure with technologies that have been used in the past (the bottom would have the printing press). 

     Over the years, as a teacher, I've used many structures such as the ones Kress and van Leeuwen talk about. Breaking things down into a visual is very helpful to my students (and me) especially, my special education students. Many of my children have been visual learners and need the graphs, diagrams, venn diagrams and charts to learn. Seeing the information rather than just hearing it is very helpful. In my current classroom (Universal PreK) I've used several as well; bar graphs, venn diagrams and charts. We just recently created a mitten vs. glove chart to see who wears what in our classroom and then from this we were able to determine whether more children have gloves or mittens in our classroom. Just goes to show that you can use these visual literacies in many areas; as sophisticated as with Jenkins or as simple as with my prek classroom.

References:

Green. (n.d.). Graphical representation of GREEN's approach to literacy. Retrieved January 21, 2015, from https://moodle.esc.edu/mod/page/view.php?id=821667

Jenkins, Henry. "TEDxNYED - Henry Jenkins - 03/06/10." Online video clip. Youtube. Uploaded on April 13th, 2010. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFCLKa0XRlw. January 30th, 2015.

Kress, G., & Van leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading Images: The Grammer Of Visual Design (2nd ed., p. 312). Routledge.

Week 2 Journal Blog: interactive participant and represented participant in semiotic theory

    Blog Topic: In your journal post, consider the concept of interactive participant and represented participant as identified in the semiotic theory in Kress and van Leeuwin and its link to the social context of literacy.

      In our reading Kress and van Leeuwin believe that, "there are two types of participant involved in every semiotic act, interactive participants and represented participants. The former are the participants in the act of communication – the participants who speak and listen or write and read, make images or view them, whereas the latter are the participants who constitute the subject matter of the communication; that is the people, places and things (including abstract things) represented in and by the speech or writing or image, the participants about whom or which we are speaking or writing or producing images” (p. 48). They believe that every visual image has a represented participant or the participants that compose the subject of expression. They are the ones that are responsible for creating the visual image. As an interactive participant you use your own understanding of the world; how you interpret things and what your background understanding is of things to interpret a visual piece.
     It's overwhelming to think that one piece of art (or a sign) can be interpreted so many different ways. Everyone is raised differently, influenced differently, and brings a different twist on things to the table. One persons view of a sign or artwork could be completely and totally different from another's view. I like how our video, "Semiotics: the Study of Signs" gives us a visual explanation of this. They show two people at the end of the video having a conversation. One person says one word and the other has an "idea bubble" pop up with how they visually interpret a word. For example, the one person says the word, "vacation" and the other persons idea bubble is of "ZZZZZ". The person associates a vacation with sleeping. If someone said the word vacation to me, I'd envision a lake and a campfire. This example just goes to show that one represented participant can interpret something so differently from another.
    I believe this to be the reason why we need such distinct cultural signs; signs that everyone knows the meaning behind. These signs involve no guessing to the person trying to interpret them. Such signs include; stop signs, red lights, yield, bathroom (male/female) signs etc, etc. You know without a doubt what these signs mean and what to do when you see them. There is no guessing involved with these cultural landmarks but when looking at a piece of art or in our own conversations we are left to determine the meaning behind them. Whatever experiences you bring to the table directly effect how you interpret things.




Kress, G., & Van leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading Images: The Grammer Of Visual Design (2nd ed., p. 312). Routledge.

Need a technology over haul!

 "The distinctive contribution of the approach to literacy as social practice lies in the ways in which it involves careful and sensitive attention to what people do with texts, how they make sense of them and use them to further their own purposes in their own learning lives" (Gillen and Barton, 2010, p. 9).

 

    I'll be honest, just beginning this new chapter in my life is scary. I have taken online courses in the past but it was years ago and now, things have changed so much. Like Wilber talks about in, "Special themed issue: Beyond ‘new’ literacies," technology changes from minute to minute and it depends on you and your ability to adapt to the updated technology. I am a Universal PreK teacher and the funding for the program is very low; technology in my classroom consists of three old computers that can connect the children to such websites as PBS kids, Star fall and ABC Mouse. Having such limited resources for the children in turn, limits me. Being out of school for a while has definitely caused me to be, "out of the loop" when it comes to technology. Wilber is right, "what is “now” means something completely different five minutes later from when it was first uttered" and over the past couple of years my "now" has been stagnant. This new adventure makes me realize just how much there is to learn and be updated on (and how much I've missed out on). In the article, "Digital Literacies" they mention, "change is hard especially when challenges are presented at the most material level, with technologies themselves let alone the practices around them seemingly in a constant state of flux." (Gillen and Barton, 2010, p. 10). Demand, people's abilities, people's financial situation and cognitive abilities all play into what new technology they can access and understand. I believe it is difficult for some to stay current on all of the new technology that is out there; we are not all in a field that requires the understanding of it all. Like stated above, not having access to new technologies and not having the need to learn them has really hurt me. I feel like I'm very lacking in the area of new and ever changing technology. My hope is that this course will better inform me of what is out there; hopefully I can bring it into my classroom and home as well.