I found the chapter on Remixing to be interesting and
relatable to me as a teacher in my experiences with the evolving use of
technology and multimodalities. The author of chapter two, Erstad (2013) relates this concept of remixing back
to music and DJs and the technology
available to them to use an existing song and create something new. Erstad
(2013) writes “since the mid-1970s we have seen many examples of artists take
existing music pieces and or recordings and make something new from them.” (p. 43-44)
An important point made in the chapter about digital
literacies by Erstad is that these literacies will be determined by the tasks
that both the teachers and students work on. (p. 44) The definition of remixing
the author provides to the reader is “ ‘selecting cutting, pasting, and
combining semiotic resources into new digital and multi-model texts, which is
achieved by downloading and uploading files from different sources (internet,
iPod, DV-camera, digital camera, or sound recording devices)” (Erstad, 2013, p
44-45) I worked at school prior to the pandemic that implemented 1:1 technology
for our students. I had a class of 2nd
graders with chrome books, and I wanted to come up with a way to utilize them
within my classroom setting. As I
learned along with my students, we created a Google Classroom where students
could utilize teacher created video lessons, and other modalities to support
numeracy which Gillen and Barton (2010) explain as “the ability to manipulate
and interpret numbers” (p 16) Student’s took pictures of work and inserted them
onto their slides, googled images that demonstrated real life mathematical
concepts, and recorded themselves explaining his or her thinking and inserted
them into their slide deck. The pandemic forced many districts to make the jump
to provide students with 1:1 devices in order to maintain learning during that
time. Now, I think many teachers have access to devices but still do not quite
use them in innovative ways. This is due partly, because technology is evolving
quickly, and many teachers either are not comfortable with using it or claim
there is no time. My thought is what can you do as a teacher to make one small
change to feel more comfortable with technology or to change how you are
presenting your lessons? Erstad writes
“at school, children report that they use digital media to a much lesser degree
than at home or with friends, and that when they use media at school it is
often to make traditional literacies of writing letters and numeracy more effective,
while their use outside of schools is more made up of many different
activities, especially gaming, downloading music, and communication and
creation.” (2013, p. 47)
If we consider Green’s model the concept of remixing is
both cultural and critical. Remixing enables people, both students and adults, to
develop new ways of receiving and sharing ideas and information as well as seeing
ideas from multiple perspectives and modalities. Considering Erstad’s definition
of remixing, “ ‘selecting cutting, pasting, and combining semiotic resources
into new digital and multi-model texts, which is achieved by downloading and
uploading files from different sources (internet, iPod, DV-camera, digital
camera, or sound recording devices)” (Erstad, 2013, p 44-45)students must
utilize critical thinking skills to determine what images, text, or videos make
sense to use. The author writes of three cases in which digital media is used
within the school setting. The first case describes students create a web page
about an Antarctica expedition, the other was a digital newspaper created by
school communities in opposite parts of town getting to know each other, and
the final case was about students working on a short film. In each of these
cases students are working with classmates and those in other areas to create and
share information in new ways. Erstad
(2013) writes, “that remixing as a cultural activity…opens fundamental
questions about “reading” and “writing” and about what schools are for.” (p.
53)
In conclusion, Erstad acknowledges the constraints on
many schools regarding the practice of remixing, such as teacher competencies,
the school day, and assessments.(2013, p. 54) With that being said, and my
experiences as a teacher, we must have a growth mindset in how we approach our
teaching practices. We can utilize the funds of knowledge our students come to
school with regarding technology and, as Erstad explains work with our students
to engage in remixing activities.
References
Gillen,
J. and Barton, D. (2010). Digital literacies: A research briefing by the
Technology Enhanced Learning phase of the Teaching and Learning Research
Program.
Lankshear, C. and Knobel M. (2013). A new
literacies reader. Peter Lang Publishing Inc.
