Blog #3- Lankshear and Knobel article

The article entitled Sampling "the New" in New Literature was, for the most part an easy read. The article starts off with a sampling which talks about all the different technologies and ways that literature is being transformed as we speak. As we move into the first subtitle of the article, "A sociocultural approach to literature," we read about the contexts of reading and writing. The topic of Discourses is also brought up in this section. Discourses are "socially recognized ways of using language, gestures and other semiotics, as well as ways of thinking, such that we can be identified and recognized as being a member of a socially meaningful group, or as playing a socially meaningful role." (pg 3). Basically, no matter what it is that we are doing, we are using a discourse, because we are constantly thinking, talking, writing, reading, etc., and discourses tend to change over time.

In the section entitled, "Sociocultural Definitions of 'Literacies,'" talks mostly about the fact that literacy is a form of communication. When we talk and when we write, we are communicating with other people. "Without text there is no literacy," is a statement that is made in the text, which holds true to my own personal beliefs. Some people write for the entertainment of others, while some writers write as a means of self-expression and communicating what isn't possible to verbally communicate. Weblogging is an online form of communication. In simplest terms, it is a form of communication that is typed out and posted on the internet (sometimes for the public to see, and other times just for a select few people to view). Within this subtitle, there is a section that talks about ebay and how people auction off ridiculous stuff, but this is all a means of literacy. The art of being an ebay bidder and seller, comes into play with this era of "New Literacy" that the article is trying to talk about. (pg. 5).

Before reading this article, I considered literacy to be just reading books and stuff published on the internet, however this is so not the case. As mentioned in the article, "hence, our claim that literacies are 'socially recognized ways of generating, communicating, negotiating meaningful content throug the medium of encoding texts..." Additionally, such literacies can include the following, "blogging, fanfic writing, manga producting, meme-ing, photoshopping, anime music video (AMV) practicies, podcasting, vodcasting, and gaming are literacies, along with letter writing, keeping a diary, maintaining records, running a paper-based zine, reading literary novels and wordless picture books...." (pg 6). Literacy, in the modern day, is such a wide array of different materials.

The article also talked about two different mindsets, mindset 1 and mindset 2, and the differences that come along. There was a comment made on page 11, "schools, for example, have tradionally operated to regulate scarcity of credentialed achievement, including allocations of litercy 'success.'" This part became of interest to me, because as mentioned in the previous blog, I have intentions of being a teacher, and the minute anything is discussed about schools, teachers, and/or students, my mind goes to my future career. Then on page 14, the comment is made as follows: "From the standpoint of the first mindset, space is typically through of as enclosed, as having borders. In the educational context, learning space is bordered by the classroom walls, lesson space by the hour or 40-minute time signal, and curriculum and timetable space by the grid of subjects to be covered and the time and physical space allocations assigned to them." Again, my mind drifted to the classroom, and how true that saying is. There is only so much time alloted for everything to be covered and there just isnt enough time in a day, nor space in a classroom to do everything that needs to be done.

The final topic that I found interesting and that connects to our discussion that we had in class on Thursday about our own personal experience with technology and writing, is about the multi-tasking. In the article, it talks about wireless classrooms where students are half paying attention to the class, while surfing the internet, doing online shopping, or instant messaging with friends. The article also says that "even when they were 'drifting' on their screens, they demonstratably participated as much if not more in class discussions than their 'on task' peers." I don't sit in class on a laptop, to begin with, but I understand where the authors are coming from, and I have been in classes where people are doing just that!

Overall, this article was easy to read and Iwas able to connect to a few of the topics they were talking about. Anytime that you, as a reader, can connect with the writing, makes for a more pleasureable reading experience.