Just a reminder that you're all in the hot seat in lecture Tuesday. You are the names I know...you are the ones I'm going to call on. Hooray!
Next week's questions are here:
1. Hull and Stornaiuolo approach social networking through the lens of “cosmopolitanism,” which they define as “…a strategy for reconciling the tensions inherent in a vastly interconnected yet deeply divided world, where we have ‘obligations that stretch beyond those to whom we are related by the ties of kith and kind, or even the more formal ties of shared citizenship’ (Appiah, 2006, p. xv)” (p. 792 in reader). How does this concept further our discussion of literacy? Why should we view student behavior through this lens?
2. boyd and Ellison walk us through a history of social network sites and past research. How can we think of social network sites as spaces for literacy development? Do you think SNSs have a place in the classroom? Why or why not?
3. All three articles complicate notions of traditional literacy. How can we conceptualize the notion of a “visual literacy”? What are the benefits of thinking about literacy to include images? Does this add to the classroom or how we think about student learning?
4. You are college students. College students with, I imagine, Facebook pages. What are your reactions to Mendelson and Papacharissi’s article? What do you think they get right? Wrong? What does this study add to our discussion of literacy?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteTJ Cycyota
ReplyDelete1. Social networking, seen here as a method to navigate the vastly complicated world of on-line media, functions not only as a coping mechanism for students but also as an opportunity to experience the differences in culture and methods experienced by other users. Through this mode of contact, social networkers have the ability to freely interpret and express themselves, translating that image of themselves to written text, audio and video recordings, and pictures. This complicated depiction of self is therefore a form of literacy where one must figure out how to display their personality to the outside world, determining the best methods with which to demonstrate their life. It is an important lens through which to view students because they are no longer navigating the purely real-life, interpersonal relationships that existed in a school setting before social networking opportunities, but are also functioning in this vastly complex virtual setting. The two modes of expression, however, are not exclusive, and aspects from one are likely to carry over into the other. For this reason, student behavior in social settings must sometimes be interpreted with this duality in mind.
3. As a visual, global learner myself, my sense of visual literacy is perhaps my most defining as a student. I function best when the information I need to know is presented to me pictorially, in pictures and graphs and charts and diagrams that I can remember. I am not alone in this functionality, and visual learners tend to learn best when the learning occurs outside of the written text form. Therefore, to accommodate visual learners and to promote a more equal dispersion of knowledge in a classroom, it is important to add visual literacy to the common notion of literacy in general. Social networks, for example, make use of personal pictures to allow people to depict themselves to other people. For many users, this picture tells more of the person than any amount of text in an “About me” blurb could ever say. In a fast paced and widely navigated platform such as Facebook, the picture, in essence, becomes the person’s profile and therefore a majority representation of the person themselves. It is important and beneficial to remember that literacy includes images to create a more equal space in which children can learn and be properly informed by utilizing the skills they learn outside of the classroom, such as interpreting a picture of a piece to represent the whole.
1. Much of our discussion about literacy has to do with interpreting and creating meaning. Traditionally, this has been done through texts, such as novels, newspaper articles, or poems; however, with the explosion of digital technologies, the act of meaning-making is no longer relegated to the written word. Though social network sites incorporate text, the text is not the only focus of way of communicating involved. Many of these sites allow users to include videos and photographs, and add locations to posts, and these additional features can be used to create a message. Perhaps the most important aspect of digital communication is that any message one creates has the potential to reach other people around the world. The lens of cosmopolitanism allows us to view literacy in terms of worldly communication: the creation and interpretation of meaning as it differs around the world. Throughout this semester we have discussed the importance of culture in literacy, and social network sites can provide an opportunity for us to engage with different cultures and their conceptions of literacy. Hull and Stornaiuolo say, “We suggest, then, that a reimagined cosmopolitanism might offer the field of literacy studies a starting place for including conceptions of local and global citizenship within its curricular and pedagogical purview…” (p. 793 in reader).
ReplyDelete2. Social network sites provide a potential space for literacy development because they allow all users to create a message and display it for others. Additionally, members are able to interpret these messages. However we view literacy, as text-based only, or multimodal, social network sites are one avenue of exploration of meaning. I think SNSs have a place in the classroom, but a limited one, and it varies by the type of social network. For instance, the Space2Cre8 social network described by Hull and Stornaiuolo clearly has an education-driven component, and is constructed within a program that promotes interaction with students that one doesn’t know, as opposed to just students one already knows, which is how most social network sites function currently. The Space2Cre8 network allows multimodal literacy to exist and even flourish. I do not feel that Facebook has this particular influence, but I believe its inclusion in the classroom is necessary because it is a major part of 21st century life. Providing a scaffold for students to learn how to use mainstream social network sites might encourage students to critically analyze their experiences and the experiences of others.
1. Children, and individuals, from all over the globe can use social networking sites to connect to one another and bring the world to a very personal and real level, and students’ actions on social networking sites, such as uploading pictures, adding friends, and writing posts, enable them to express themselves in a new form of literacy that has never been seen before. The knowledge behind knowing how to create a profile, post pictures, comment, update statuses, in addition to interpreting the data and information present on social networking sites proves that a new and different form of literacy is emerging. However, viewing these social media practices through a cosmopolitanism lens allows students, and young children, to understand that their actions on these online sites create outcomes that extend into the international community and beyond “the ties of kith and kind.”
ReplyDelete4. It is interesting for me to read the articles by Mendelson and Papacharissi because I had never thought of Facebook as something that could be measured and analyzed to interpret behavior. I enjoyed reading through their study and tried to decide whether their data accurately represented my actions, and the actions of my friends, on the social networking site.
After reading the piece from the reader, I found that I relate connect to almost all of the findings of Mendelson and Papacharissi. I can connect to the claim that certain events are repeated within most college student profiles: almost all of my friends have a certain set of pictures from prom, parties, graduation, sporting events, birthdays, and holidays. In addition, it is true that the majority of my friends do not try to hide their underage drinking in their profiles; if anything, they try to promote their reputation by presenting pictures of themselves drinking. Although, they fail to address the fact that many students will alter their profiles at certain times, such as when applying for a job or applying for college. Similarly, Mendelson and Papacharissi were accurate in all of their other arguments, such as embarrassing pictures, portraits alone, number of cameras usually present, same recurring people, and pictures being organized by time.
2. I think that SNS do play a role in literacy development. When I think of SNS I think of code-switching; how online communication might be different from offline communication, form literacy. Saying that SNS do help develop literacy might seem out of reach for some because they do not follow the traditional view of literacy (autonomous). SNS can be used to inform others about opportunities, events, groups, etc. that they believe someone might be interested in or can benefit them. I know many school districts block social network sites due to privacy issues, but students will create profiles anyway. Why work against students when we can teach them how to protect themselves and their identity at school? SNS users are constantly updating their status, blogs, notes, etc. which can give them greater confidence in their school writing because they are already able to write to a public audience. SNS also require users to know how to use the site and how to navigate through its settings which require reading and understanding, which are all part of literacy development.
ReplyDelete4. Reading Mendelson and Papacharissi’s article I was surprised to see that they were right. They were able to analyze people’s pictures on Facebook and see that there is a relationship between the types of pictures that college students post. I was a little embarrassed to fall into some of the analysis that they made about college students’ pictures; like the typical pose. I was hoping that they addressed the fluidity of the pictures; just like our identity can change, so can our profile since it reflects us and what we want people to see. I usually go back to see my pictures and say to myself, “what was I thinking” and then I delete those pictures. It’s difficult to address how this relates to literacy, but I do see that we should be more open in accepting SNS as literacy since they do play an integral part in forming our identity, and thus literacy.
Lorna Porter
ReplyDelete1. The internet as a tool for communication has vastly shrunk the world, and social network has evolved as a mode of connection and expression that changes the way we see relationships, our role in the world, and has become a new form of literacy. The concept of cosmopolitanism delves into this idea that perhaps social networking can bring together different people who were previously separated by geographic distance in a way that transcends the traditional definition of who we are. Social networking allows for a different type of representation, and as we talk about literacy, and the larger concept of defining our role in the world, social networking provides a mode of literacy through which people can connect, relate, and use to understand the world around them. By viewing social networking as a form of literacy, teachers and role models in the classroom can see proficiency in social networking as a skill that can complement traditional literacy. The most basic idea of literacy is to read and write, to understand how to communicate and express oneself while learning about others. Social networking can do just that, and is rapidly becoming a skill that connects different cultures, generations, and ideas.
4. The article by Mendelson and Papacharissi explores many basic, yet important themes of social networking sites, and looks at how they are influencing the social experiences of the newer generation. I agree with the authors in that social networking sites have evolved so that users utilize them to “define the way (one is) perceived”. Facebook and the like are sites that are touted as ways to stay in touch, yet I find that the main goal of them is for people to express their lives in an edited fashion. The goal becomes perfecting the image of the life you want others to see you living. Cameras are now present at every event, people post pictures that don’t necessarily represent them in a positive light, but go with the general state at which they feel their life should be. For us, this state is college, so the emphasis is on drinking, being stupid, and living it up. I am not surprised that I fit into the author’s depiction of a typical social network site user, but their portrayal seems to trivialize the experience, and in my opinion, it only becomes an issue when one takes the image cultivation too seriously, and stops living one’s life to enjoy the moment, and only to show others on facebook.
1.Throughout this course, multimodal education has, to me, been the most prominent theme. In their article, Hull and Stormaiuolo demonstrate that multimodal education, and particularly, education that involves cosmopolitanism, helps broaden communication across cultural boundaries and gives students a new way to express themselves. With the digital era of the 21st century, students now have hundreds of new resources and modes of literacy. Now, young people can “tell, retell, and share pivotal narratives about self, family, and friends in local contexts, such as home, school, and community, developing, representing, and experiencing themselves as powerful storytellers, artists, and multimodal communicators.” We can now communicate with those outside of our immediate circle because we can express ourselves in so many new ways, to such a huge audience. Youth can interact with one another online and find so many more things that they have in common. Youth can expand their literacy by engaging with others that may come from extremely different backgrounds, which can facilitate learning to be culturally sensitive at the same time. Student behavior should be viewed through this lens because with social networking sites, one can express how they are feeling at any particular moment. This increases expression and up to date dialogue between youth.
ReplyDelete2. In section we discussed how any place where there is a particular language spoken and rules to follow, literacy is involved. If being a fan of particular video games or movie sequels involves literacy, then I believe social networking sites do too. It takes a particular type of language to communicate with friends on SNSs such as Myspace or Facebook. Some people abbreviate words or talk in an unidentifiable language all together. We all use a particular SNS etiquette to perform acts such as requesting a “friend”, posting to their “wall”, and much more. It seems silly to write, but Facebook really does have literary codes that people follow. Beyond that, social networking pages are a place for people to express themselves freely and develop a better understanding of others. I definitely believe that SNSs have a place in the classroom because they are the easiest way to communicate with a big group of people. SNSs are fast, easy and effective for teachers and students.
2.
ReplyDeleteFrom first hand experience, I can say that Social Network Sites enable people to enhance in literacy development. Boyd and Ellison go further into detail in discussing the true meaning behind “networking” sites and how it involves “ relationship initiation between strangers.” I think it is obvious when we call something a social network, it refers to a place where people can keep in touch with people they know while still allowing possible contact with strangers. Now a days younger and younger kids are using social network sites as a way to connect and stay in contact with their friends, but what does this entail? Well, aside from all the lame conversations and cheesy pictures, it does make them way better at typing and spelling. I also think social network sites are a “fun” way to engage in using the English language. Rather than writing an essay for school, a student would much rather want to talk about a break up between two friends. Though the context might seem different, the student is using this social network to enhance their writing skills and sentence development. I know I was the same way when I first started using Myspace; next thing I knew, I was writing paragraphs and paragraphs and didn’t think twice about the writers block that I would encounter when writing something for a class. Ultimately, I think social network sites do contribute to literacy development in these ways.
4.
Mendelson and Papacharissi found that college students( mainly underclassman) have a central objective on Facebook that mainly involves the recording and posting of their participation in the social rituals of college. After reading their study, I honestly cant disagree with anything they are saying… in fact I can relate to some parts and agree on the basic ideas they are pointing out. College students, amongst the rest of the population, are the ideal people who would categorize well within this study. These students are all about their image and they try to put up photographs that will make them look cute, sexy, cool etc. unfortunately, what we chose to put up is something that can haunt us in the future when we start living in the real world. These photos are what make up our identity and shape us as a person. In regards to literacy, we discussed in class that by looking at a picture or a video, anyone can assess the meaning behind it and thing about it in their own way.
1. While traditional forms of literacy such as reading and writing are still considered by most in the world of academia and beyond to be the most mainstream and crucial forms of literacy, social networking sites such as Facebook are emerging as a new form of literacy. Digital media sites allow for users to express themselves through untraditional forms of communication. By posting pictures, status updates, wall posts, messages, etc, students are able to connect and establish relationships on a more legitimate level, something that is not possible through conventional forms of text. Additionally, students are now able to network on a grander scale, in a sense shrinking the world. People are now able to transcend barriers developed by both geography and society that isolate individuals that stem from varying cultures.
ReplyDelete4. Mendelson and Papacharissi have found that in a sense, social networking sites are dictating the relationships and experiences of college students. Facebook, upon other sites, has developed into an identity-building source. What appears on one’s Facebook is highly reflective of his or her social identity. People have begun crafting their Facebook page to make it appear as though they are living the college experience everyone desires, red cup in hand. In social situations, people are more concentrated on the images that emerge than the actual memories being made. I have found through personal experience that people will spend so much time taking pictures to upload to their profiles that at the end of the night, they had done little real socializing and networking, which is what Facebook was originally designed for.
1)
ReplyDeleteThe idea of “cosmopolitanism” furthers the idea of literacy in that it suggests that students can greater their communication and social skills through interacting with other individuals whom may come from totally different areas and walks of life. While technology is expanding, so are ways in which people can communicate and grow. With technology, we are thus expected to lessen the gap, in our “deeply divided world”. Literacy is understanding what is happening in the world and having knowledge of other people’s lifestyles. Moreover, this concept furthers our discussion of literacy, because we have a new expectation to use the available tools we have like social networking in order to gain a further understanding of mankind. We should view students’ behavior through this lens of social networking, in order to gage their mannerisms in communicating and understanding of people of different origins. We can test their reading, writing, and appropriate response mechanisms through various social networking sites.
2)
Social networking sites are undoubtedly spaces for literacy development, in that they not only hone communication skills, but they also provide spaces for practicing reading and writing, while simultaneously improving tech and internet competence which is becoming increasingly important. SNS users must learn how to use the site, make a profile, and interact with others. Through interacting with others, they might further learn about news or current events, which they may not have come across on their own. This might cause a user to look this “current event” up in order to stay “in the know” , consequently informing them. I think that SNS most definitely had a place in the classroom. Students, by human nature, want to be interacting with other people. If they can practice reading and writing, while also connecting and interacting, they will learn skills in a faster, less intimidating way. Through social networking sites, I have personally learned to type faster, I have learned to code html, and I have increased knowledge of what is happening in popular culture and in the news
1.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of cosmopolitanism is important in literacy discussions simply because the world has become so interconnected. The idea behind cosmopolitanism is to value, and encourage, both personal reflection and care for the world in youth. Because of the contradictory state of the world (interconnected, but divided), it’s important to foster student literacy through the lens of cosmopolitanism, with a bigger world-view. And social networking is one of the ways that youth have most quickly caught onto to connect with the world digitally.
2.
It’s arguable that much of what’s done on SNSs are literacy events. Ideas are communicated through words and pictures, to an audience that generally understands the language in which they’re portrayed. SNSs can offer literacy development to youth because they’re a widely used outlet for expression, plus they largely employ reading and writing, the fundamentals of traditional literacy. However my problem with using SNSs in the classroom is the forms of literacy they foster, and those they don’t. While I agree that multiple forms of literacy are important and deserve a place in school, I do also think that in using SNSs as an outlet for literacy development, more emphasis should be placed on perfecting literacy in the more traditional sense. Even in school based SNSs like Space2Cre8, allowing for poor grammar and informal, vernacular language may pose a problem. If SNSs are already the main form of communication, and fostering of relationships for our youth, then they should be used carefully in the classroom, emphasizing the importance of proper English (or whatever dominant language) in everyday society.
1. Social networking provides students with the opportunity to seamlessly and instantaneously interact with people from all over the world. Hull and Stornaiuolo suggest that social networking sites can serve as platforms for students to create virtual, global, communities. I think this perspective counters a common perception of social networking sites as antisocial. Many people feel that by engaging in virtual communities, students alienate themselves from the “real world.” But even as social networking interactions occur in a virtual space, the interactions that take place occur between real people. In this way, this concept of a new type of cosmopolitanism furthers our discussion of literacy. By becoming literate in the use of social networking, students have the opportunity to identify themselves within a global context.
ReplyDelete2. We can think of social networking sites as spaces for literacy development in both the traditional definition of literacy, and in the more expanded definition that we have been discussing in the context of this course. Through a definition of literacy as simply the ability to read and write, social networking sites provide endless opportunities for students to explore their interests through reading material posted by their friends and acquaintances. To me, it makes sense that a student might be more self motivated to read something suggested by their friend than to read something recommended by their instructor. By expanding the definition of literacy in the way we have through this course, I think social networking sites have the ability to increase a student’s sense of self agency, and to place that agency within the context of a community. I think SNSs may have a place in the classroom, but I think the instructor has to have a very specific use in mind in order to incorporate SNSs into any sort of a lesson plan. One way SNSs can be used is to connect teachers to students outside of the classroom. I know that my brother’s math teacher created a facebook group that he uses to answer questions the day before their tests.
1. Previously, we have focused on contextual factors that affect literacy, such as environment (for instance, how violence in the neighborhood impacts literacy) and family (for instance, how parents reading to their kids impacts their kids’ literacy). Hull and Stornaiuolo’s concept of cosmopolitanism extends our discussion of literacy to include the global community in addition to the local communities we have studied. With our world becoming increasingly connected, it is important to view student behavior in this larger scope. Leveraging students’ increased connectivity, for instance through social networks such as Space2Cre8, we enlighten students with “other-work” of people elsewhere in the world, which supplements “self-work” afforded by digital storytelling like DUSTY. This exposure to other people’s often foreign literacies helps students expand their own views of literacy beyond their own experiences.
ReplyDelete2. Though Facebook is useful for and is indeed used for reconnecting with people and staying in touch, I agree with Mendelson and Papacharissi’s assessment of one’s Facebook as an “instrument of self-presentation and a means of visual autobiography online.” In my experience, people spend considerably more time on Facebook cultivating a positive image of their lives for others to see. They consciously do this by selecting which photos to upload and commenting on photos of themselves and friends, as well as presenting their tastes, likes, dislikes, and affiliations. Facebook differs from real-time social situations in that its interactions are asynchronous: people suddenly have time to pick and choose only what makes them look good (not to mention photoshop). People also have time to think of witty things to say (or not say), and on Facebook there is no such thing as an ‘awkward silence.’ As a result, people present a larger-than-life image of themselves from which I presume the author’s term “collective narcissism” is coined. I think the authors’ choice of sample—college students in a particular major—definitely skews the results; however, the authors acknowledge this by saying “the sample studied […] is not meant to be representative of all college students,” (31). Overall, I liked the article, as I thought it to be spot-on with its claims based on the data they collected, and insightful with regard to remarks on social themes such as the importance of peer groups.
Question #1
ReplyDeleteSocial networking sites allow people from different place sin the world coming from different cultural background to communicate with one another where information is traded. Since literacy is a way one can create and communicate the representation of one’s self to others, cosmopolitanism views social networking as literacy that “helpfully broadens this focus on communication across difference to include global context influenced by cultural flows of people and ideas facilitated by digital” (Hull: 793). It connects people who used social network sites together because they are able to share their meanings of the world to one another, for example through pictures, posted songs, personal profile statuses, etc. We should view student behavior through this lens is because many of them are using social networking sites, and they are having dialogues with one another about their interpretation of things around them, which can be successfully incorporated in education system. It will be something they are not forced to do, and they can communicate in a global context despite the different cultural backgrounds each of them may have
Question #4
After reading the article written by Mendelson and Papacharissi, I looked back to my facebook page and found out that the analysis is true. Many of the pictures are taken in groups, and usually they were taken during some kind of celebrations and parties. It is also true what the author said about how relationship is one of the significant parts that usually the subject wants to emphasize. I agree of “how visual imagery is employed to present the self and everyday college live via Facebook photo galleries” (Mendelson: 829); they are the tools subject use to express their understanding of the world. I agree that we choose the pictures that we thought as ideals rather than the real representation of the situation itself. Personally, I think privacy settings of people who can see the pictures that we posted are an important example of group oriented is Facebook. We only communicated and interact with our own groups; sometimes other people cannot even see our profiles. In addition to literacy, Facebook is a way of representing themselves and the situation the young adults live in; it emphasizes on relationship and happy occasions, which are mostly what young people’s lives about.
1. Literacy transcends the traditional view of a skill we acquire through reading and writing—it is multimodal, bringing in new ideas and insights through different outlets of learning, such as the media and social network sites. One goal of literacy is to bring about self-awareness. Social networking site can develop one’s self -identity, giving her agency and the creative space to do so. Hull and Stornaiuolo expand on this idea of social network sites being a form of multimodal education, and through the lens of “cosmopolitanism”, a way for us to connect to and therefore understand different cultures outside of our own small world. This further develops our self-awareness and personal reflection because we are able to see how we are all interconnected. Social networking sites is a form of multimodal literacy that is greatly expanding and gaining more importance in this digital era.
ReplyDelete2. I think that social network sites can be spaces for literacy development in the classroom. Users of social network sites develop their own sets of skills, which can be used to enhance their education. For example, SNS users improve their technology knowledge and competence while developing social relationships with their peers. They have to develop profiles, which involves writing and communicating efficiently. The students also enhance their reading skills when they read their friend’s posts or get caught up with current events that are posted on these sites, such as Facebook. Also, Facebook groups could help assemble classmates together and help organize study groups and open forums for discussion of class material. I have had GSIs in the past who have created Facebook groups and frequently post interesting articles relating to the subject. Social network sites have opened many doors to new possibilities of learning that can take place in the classroom, enriching the student’s experience while developing valuable skills.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete2. Social Network Sites (SNSs) can provide a platform in the development of one’s literacy but it must be approached with exertion of great meticulosity. With popular culture expanding the caste of social network sites’ users, its presence in the classroom is almost inevitable. Take Facebook for example, the biggest social networking site in the United States. Through every lecture I sit in, there are at least two people on Facebook. Every time I meet someone new it’s only a matter of days before they friend request me on Facebook. Facebook is probably the most important vehicle we have to “type [ourselves] into being.” It’s fascinating and its importance eminent. There are millions of users chronicling their lives through status updates and “Likes”—breathing obituaries of social history. It’s important to recognize that students often regard SNSs as just another part of their social and often school-related activities.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of exploiting the popularity of SNSs in order to develop children’s ability to communicate and improve their technological skills, instead of attempting to block access and inherently cripple them from expanding technological horizons. There can certainly be a place for SNSs in the classroom, right there with cinema, music, books, plays, and poetry. Engagement between student and medium is already present so why not build on it to strengthen multimodal literacy. I think if the right approach is taken, students will be more engaging and excited about the subject being taught. However, for this to even be moderately successful the SNSs have to be highly regulated as to disparage disinhibition, and a student-teacher dichotomy has to exist. “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog” (Steiner, 1993) is a concise adage that’s very telling of user anonymity online. As long as students don’t turn in to dogs, I think that SNSs in the classroom can enrich and develop.
3. Although subjective, visual literacy circumvents ideas of orthodox learning. To advocate visual literacy, there would have to be a strong focus on the critical ability of developing, assessing and applying visual representations of concepts pertaining to the curriculum. Visualizing knowledge, essentially, is the key underpinning to a more radical literacy experience that forgoes modern litany. Supplementing literacy with imagery may be beneficial to a more visually inclined learner in that it will provide a method of learning which jettisons 19th century tradition. To produce images in the way of learning has a profound effect on the expressive development in children, at least for me it did.
I drew Disney characters and made up my own G.I. Joe cartoons in my spare time. And when in art class, I was master of the color wheel. Give students the freedom to create and then use their preferred medium of expression to teach. Teach everyone. Create a potpourri of education that excites the olfactory in all walks of literacy because it’s imperative not to neglect the classroom as a whole. Be the curator and use Facebook to connect students; provide them with a virtual art gallery of sorts. There are so many exciting things that can be done in the way of visual literacy and technology is only making its implementation to the classroom easier.
1. This concept furthers our discussion of literacy, because it adds to the idea of being open to understanding how every person comes from different backgrounds and the way they approach literacy is different. Every person has their own epistemology. We should view student behavior through this lens, because the way students express themselves has much to do with their environment. Meaning that people need to be able to examine not only their environment, but others as well. This wlll help us build the capacity to “listen to one another and be sensitive to the kinds of meanings made by people.” People should be more interested in interpreting and trying to understand the thoughts of others.
ReplyDelete2. We can think of social network sites as spaces for literacy development, because SNS serve as spaces for people to express themselves. I think that people learn how to communicate with others by connecting themselves and learning from the thoughts of others.
I think that SNS’s have a place in the classroom, because I think that they could be used as a way for children to gain more confidence in expressing their ideas and talents. For example, in Hull’s article the Space2Cre8 network seemed like a great space for students to interact with others and learn about topics that affect other students around the world. I thought that it was great that a 13 year old student from the U.S. Jorell that after seeing videos about drugs and alcohol use felt compelled to share his own experiences with alcohol. I feel that networks such as these can help provide a safe and comfortable environment for youth to express themselves.
1. The concept of “cosmopolitanism” provides much for an understanding of literacy. A significant part of literacy’s mosaic like, comprehensive social phenomena is its application to human interaction with respect to skill sets more elaborate than reading and writing. And cosmopolitanism, which traditionally is understood as a “globalizing” perspective of humans in a general sense, parallels much with this take on literacy.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, this concept brings a larger, more world scale use of a social environment with respect to literacy. Specifically, by involving a cosmopolitanist view in something like a social network site, literacies can in many ways be synthesized from these novel ways for people to interact. That is, cosmopolitanism is a conceptual understanding of human interaction (ideally on a global level), and thus it follows that it extends literacy in that it increases communication between people and the literacy that inevitably accompanies it. For example, consider Facebook. The literacy involved in using Facebook, and the implied human relations built through the communication allowed therein, is the kind of novelty desired by one who believes in the globalization involved in cosmopolitanism.
Secondly, this cosmopolitanism, as Hull and Stornaiuolo suggest, brings much opportunity for the “development of the self” (795). That is, through students’ use of an online community, one can explore and access an understanding of oneself that is inaccessible otherwise. And increased development of identity, in my opinion, greatly supports a life of literacy. By this I mean that better understanding of literacy allows one to further grasp the dynamic involved in human interaction. After all interaction is between another and yourself, and knowing yourself helps that interaction. Moreover, I would want to more strongly suggest that understanding yourself involves a psychological internal dialogue that itself is a form of literacy, albeit less social and “human interaction” laden as other typical forms of literacy.
2. Social network sites can be understood as spaces for literacy development in a few ways. Firstly, as these network sites allow one to control and specify the way in which one is seen by others, a person can better communicate with others and interact due to this control and agentive action. Moreover, like in the Hull and Stornaiuolo, social network sites allow a person to access an understanding of oneself in a strong and interesting way, one that supports interaction with others, and thus development of skillsets and community culture that is integral to the multifaceted understanding of literacy we hold today.
Moreover, social network sites allow an increased accessibility of one’s social circle, not necessarily for increase in size, but more as another way of connecting to your already existing social circle. Through social networks, a person receives a novel quality of interaction with one’s peers and friends, one that then allows for other forms of literacy. By writing blogs on blogspot, for example, we can read other people’s responses to the same prompt and communicate with other people (potentially) in a way difficult in other circumstances.
SNSs should have a role in the classroom, although it definitely pushes beyond the traditional approach towards education. But, of course, it is often just the break from convention that builds a novel, more effective route of education. SNSs allow for novel ways of interaction and communication, which can only be a good thing in a social environment like in school.
2: I think that SNS's are spaces for literacy development. SNS's are very different from "reality" and require specific knowledge in order to communicate and interact. There are certain rules to follow and different ways to communicate thoughts. Things like sarcasm is very difficult to express through text alone; therefore, it has to be used in very careful contexts. Rules like these make SNS's very different from reality and make it so that its users have to learn to communicate properly. SNS's can also be useful for the classroom setting. I don't think that they should be used during class time; however, it can make it easier for the teachers to communicate to the students and vis-versa because it lowers the barriers between the two parties. It automatically creates an informal setting for communication. It can also be useful in helping students learn to write for an audience. Because blogs and facebook walls can be accessed by many people, students can practice (even implicitly) writing for a general, larger audience.
ReplyDelete4: Mendelson's and Papacharissi's research showed that people tended to use SNS's to create an image for themselves in the manner that they wanted to be perceived by others. When they looked through facebook photos, they discerned that people would post photos of the image that they wanted to be known for, whether it was the party scene or for being a goof. In one search, they noted that many undergraduates liked to create posts that involved the party culture and college rituals (i.e. football games and the Greek life). I can agree with their claims because of the way that I try to create an image for myself through facebook. I make sure that there are no questionable photos that are placed online and will untag myself from photos that make me look bad. I think that it relates to literacy in that they are mediums through which people learn about other people.
2) Social network sites each have their own learning curve, but what makes them different from a sport or pastime which must be learned is that on a SNS the user must learn to communicate to others. Sites often have their own jargon or vernacular and the student must learn this to communicate effectively. The strain posed by having to learn one way and school and using a completely different system online I feel only enriches in the same way, for example, as translating for non-english-speaking parents does. As for the school environment, we even spoke in class that SNSs usually exist only to strengthen preexisting relationships. Perhaps this is why, more often than not, education-based social groups fall flat fairly quickly; the users are not connected initially and thus never do connect.
ReplyDelete4) Mendelson and Papacharissi’s article struck me as bitingly accurate, of course my first response to reading it (I'm sure others have as well) was to go to my Facebook page and look at my photos. They got a lot right, but I feel they left out important criteria which determine whether an activity is captured in photography or not. They posit that the primary reason for photographs is to create for the user their own identity which reflects them in a positive light. Some images that could possibly show the user in a positive light aren't created because either because the subject matter is deemed uninteresting (ex. showing a picture of yourself studying) or the very existence of the photograph would create problems concerning the apparent narcissism of the subject, for instance if someone took a picture of themselves working out, viewers would be unimpressed because the photo's existence is so obviously contrived. (who brings a camera to the gym? and takes pictures of themselves instead of working out?) This effect necessarily causes every photo to usually have a group of people within it, to make the photograph seem natural and not fabricated. After reading this, it is clear that posting photos to Facebook for example is highly ritualized and there is clearly a literacy involved in profile construction and navigation.