Days 3 & 4

Who knew it'd be so hard to ignore student queries in the ol' inbox? It's HARD! But, I keep having to remind myself that they're getting my "bug someone else" away message, so I imagine they can take care of themselves. Yeah yeah yeah, I know they can, but one of my best and worst qualities is my overwhelming desire to fix other people's shit. Gonna have to work on that.

That being said, well, days 3 and 4... thinking more, reading some. My research has really landed with 2 distinct, yet quite related, areas of interest. And, I'm trying to think through how to flesh each one out and how to connect them. These areas are:

1. Rethinking/enriching the justification paper as it is positioned in digital work. That is, those of us teaching multimodal/digital work usually require some sort of justification statement (or as Shipka has students do, a Statement of Goals and Choices, the sogc). In talking with indigenous folks as they craft various cultural objects (regalia, beadwork, frybread!!, etc) I've come to this place:
   

   As teachers and scholars, looking to other types of making beyond the classroom, and listening to these stories, (and even considering bringing these into the classroom) can help enrich our understandings of multimodal production and analysis, and I believe helps to, as bell hooks suggests, “teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students” so that we can “provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin.” Such work provides, I believe, a conscious awareness, and as Devitt reminds us: “conscious awareness of anything makes mindful living more possible than it would be otherwise” (Amy Devitt, Writing Genres, 2004. Pg 202).

2. Questioning the value of coding literacy as it is understood by those in the c&c world and/or DH world. That is, to be a Real dh-er or digital scholar or teacher, does one have to be, and teach, coding? And what is wrapped up with notions of 'right' and 'wrong' when it comes to digital production? Again, turning to indigenous making practices, I see over and over again this teaching or knowledge of the right way to do something (hand-sewing fringe on a shawl, or hand winnowing wild rice) but then often an enactment of the 'wrong' way (using pre-sewn fringe or a mechanical winnower). 

There's a lot a lot a lot I can say, and many others have taught/shared/storied me about these two areas, and i WILL Say more, but for now I'm trying to remind myself of these two areas, see how far I've got in my previous conference papers on both topics, and to see where I need to go next.

In addition to thinking through those areas, I spent today rereading Kristin Prins' article "Crafting New Approaches to Composition" from my and Anne's book. I've been rethinking composition as craft and Prins helps me think through this, as well as think through the differences between composition as design vs. composition as craft. This reminds me to reread Bob Johnson's User-Centered Technology, and to read the big ol' list of readings Bob suggested to me this past fall at the Writing Across the Peninsulas conference.

I also spent some time digging around the new OA journal: Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society. I've got a lot more to say about that, but for now, I need to get my butt to campus so as to see the visiting artist lecture by Randy Bolton. fyi: "Randy Bolton’s work is characterized by an exploration of images that seem familiar and comforting on first glance, but become strange and disturbing on further consideration. His prints borrow from and adapt the nostalgia-evolving illustrations of early children’s books and science texts.... learn more!