Digital-critical literacies practices: participation

1. Digital-critical literacies practices: participation Matthew Clarke School of Education University of New South Wales

2. Initial discussion • Share your experience of searching fan fiction sites online with a peer • Did you find any reflecting your own interests as a fan? • What intrigued/surprised/pleased/annoyed you about any of the sites? • What did you notice about the feedback and comments provided by other ‘fanfic’ writers?

3. Youth and fanfiction • Young people • construct complex, multimodal narratives online • negotiate online interactions using invented codes & words to achieve social goals • move between fiction and non-fiction genres, ‘virtual’ and ‘real’ selves • respond critically and creatively to texts in their online literacy practices • blend their ‘offline’ and online characters as they shape their identity development Thomas, 2007, p. 162

4. New literacies practices: fanfiction • ‘in-canon writing’ http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3977770/2/Ten_Little_Housewives • ‘alternative universe stories’ http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1563941/1/To_Dwell_On_Dreams • ‘cross-overs’ http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mredding/minako/msm-02.html • ‘relationshipper narratives’ http://www.shipperseasons.com/season8/ep8.04_main.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWUBXf0gkpM • ‘self-insert’ http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2202722/1/A_Self_Insertion • fan manga & anime - remixing words & graphics http://fanmanganime.forumcommunity.net/

5. Hong Kong teachers’ fanfiction:James Bond 007: The Bean Crisis We start with Mr Bean visiting Gerland, a small hostile European nation. He wants to go the National Museum but unknowingly he takes the wrong bus and ends up at a central nuclear launch centre… Meanwhile, James has stolen a tank and blown up a helicopter and the monster truck. You know, his usual style. He stops to quickly sip the martini and rearranges his tuxedo, trying to look like Sean Connery. Mr Bean is admiring the museum “collection”, including the nuclear bomb. He is so fascinated by a fish tank like weapon so he wants to look for information about it. He sees a big red button. When he is about to press it, James Bond and Moneypenny  arrive. “Do you see the beast? Have you got it in your sight?” Money penny asks Bond. “Clear enough. This should present no significant problem.” (Sean’s accent)… Two days later, James Bond is in prison. Mr Bean is drinking Martinin with beautiful girls, telling them his little adventure in “national museum”

6. Experiencing fan fiction • Individually, or in pairs, create and post your own fan fiction text at this simulated fanfiction site • If you want to see more examples search for fan fiction on google • You can refine your search using sub-genres of fan fiction or searching for fan fiction related to a favourite series, character, book, movie etc. • After posting your text, read and comment on the texts of others in the group

7. Fan fiction in language education • Re-read pp 130-132 in the chapter from Thomas, A. (2007), Youth online: Identity and literacy in the digital age. New York Peter Lang • How useful and practicable do you think using fan fiction in the language classroom is? • What are the potential benefits? • What are the potential challenges?

8. New literacies practices: blogging “Blogs have evolved into multiple forms reflecting diverse social purposes.” (Lankshear&Knobel, 2006, p. 138) • A provisional typology of the blogosphere • Interactivity & networking tools: backtracking, RSS feeds & hyperlinks “The more a blogger’s audience grows. The less she can read other people’s blogs, reply to their comments, link to other blogs and so on. Such a blogger ends up, in effect, becoming a ‘broadcast outlet’, distributing material without participating in conversations about it.” (Lankshear&Knobel, 2006, p. 159) • What are the implications of this in terms of mindset 1 & 2? On the other hand many blogs are rarely visited or read or responded to… • What might be some of the pedagogical implications/applications of blogging?

9. Blogs in education • Blogs are free, widely available, and relatively straightforward to use • Blogs can incorporate a range of multimodal text types and features (videos, sound files, images etc.) • Blogs lend themselves to longitudinal projects and group work • Blogs can be a vehicle for learning about the features, affordances, and pitfalls of online communication • Blogs can be vehicles for connecting to others with shared interests & support emerging ‘communities of practice’ or ‘affinity spaces’ • Blogs can provide a record of learning over time Davies & Merchant, 2009

10. Activity • Use some of the following education ‘meta blog’ services (or other similar meta blogs) to find educational blogs that interest or appeal to you http://movingforward.wikispaces.com/Education+Blogs+by+Discipline http://blogs.educationau.edu.au/ http://www.clearvieweducation.com/blog/ http://www.tesall.com/teachers/blogs.php http://www.blogcatalog.com/directory/education-and-learning/education_and_training/ 2. Make a link to at least one of these on your page on the wiki and provide a a brief description to guide other users

11. Literacy identity: A repertoire of resources after Anstey & Bull, 2006, p. 34

12. Engagement Identities Holistic Experience Guided Exploration CriticalReflectiveAnalysis Creative Production Community

13. For tomorrow… • Think about the students in your own context and create an inventory of some of the main aspects of their literacy identities • Generate some initial ideas for ways of validating, building-on and extending their literacy identities in the classroom • Think about how you might present this information and be prepared to share it with peers in the group tomorrow