“Making” Writing in the World of Digitals
It is 2023, and it is the world of digitals. The initial tsunami of digitals was somewhat terrifying, but it is no longer the question of accepting or not accepting it; this ocean of digitals is our life. Now we need to focus on how to properly breathe, voice out, and connect with other humans so that we simply do not drown into clutters of digitals. More importantly, we need to teach our students to do so. We do this by collaborating writing and making. We must teach writing to help students to make (find) their identities, to make (find) their voices, to make connections, and to make an impact on the world.
Lankshear and Knobel interpreted literacy as “encoded text”. In New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning, they wrote, “‘Encoded texts’ are texts that have been ‘frozen’ or ‘captured’ in ways that free them from their immediate context of production so that they can ‘travel’ because they are ‘transportable’” (40). As much as we teach students to compose meaningful texts which they can “freeze”, we need to cultivate an environment in which they can connect and “transport” those texts to meaningful communities. As students consider the mode, genre, medium, audience in their composition process, they become more efficient communicators. This is because they “play around” with multiple elements of composition to make their messages more relatable and clearer for their targeted audiences.
For example, as students write their opinions on a blog post, they learn to listen to conversations about a social issue. They consider the community of thoughts they are entering. They think about the power of their written texts. As they compose a poster to show their understanding of financial crisis, they consider the layout, the colors, the symbolism of pictures, and the conciseness of words. As they make a music video by remixing different music videos to respond to unjust social issues, they analyze numerous lyrics and understand the fair use of copyrighted mentor texts. And they do all this in collaboration. Ultimately, all these activities empower students to make connections to the real world. By writing and making, they let their voices out and listen to other voices. They become active members of the world.
Let’s not forget that building these strong connections to the world is in mutual relationship with understanding one’s identity. We understand ourselves better as we ponder “how” to make compositions to connect with others. Also, the connection with the targeted audiences and their communities strengthens our self-identities.
Therefore, by “making” writing, students achieve better understandings of themselves and their communities. They learn to swim skillfully in the ocean of digitals with a school of connected members and let their voices be heard. They become active members of this digitalized global world.
Works Cited
Lankshear, Colin, and Michele Knobel. “Literacies: Practice, Discourse, and Encoded Texts.” New Literacies, Open University Press, Maidenhead, 2011, pp. 32–50.
