Once again, it's late and I wasn't going to blog today...but after supper I started to explain to my mum how I felt about the courses I'm taking. Yesterday I picniked my first photo (it's already uploaded in Flickr) and was thrilled about it and I also took part for the first time in a chat at TappedIn. I like the idea of moving from the old chat rooms into offices on different floors of a building (and I got lost, just like in a real building!). On the way out I stumbled upon other offices and joined an Arts group.
That's more or less how my multiliteracy's been being built, I think. Very unplanned yet following a discernable path.
Back to supper and my mum -I said I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the course on Multiliteracy because it seemed to be happenning everywhere and I didn't know where to start. And as I was sayig that I realised that one of the reasons I've been a bit reluctant to read the suggested bibliography and to get more involved has to do with the concept of multiliteracies. I can picture and feel a concept like that in English, but in my mother tongue (Spanish) it just loses all flexibility. I was trying to define what I understand by multiliteracies at the moment and at the same time looking for a word in Spanish that my mum would understand. And all I could come up with was "multialfabetización", which is the sum of multi- (so far so good) + literacy (alfabetización). But it just doesn't add up. In Spanish, both to me and my mum, the concept is too firmly tied up to having basic reading and writing skills. I can reason that that is definitely not the whole picture -and it hasn't been for a while- but deep down inside -in whatever nooks and crannies of the body one feels language, I cannot.
Perhaps after this post I'll be able to unlock my nooks and crannies and begin to absorb what multiliteracies are about.
A Challenge for School Leaders
6 months ago
4 comments:
Hi, Beatriz.
I've enjoyed reading your blog very much.
We're classmates in Multiliteracies and Digital materials - or so it seems.
The term I've seen for multiliteracies in Spanish is "alfabetismos multiples", but you are right: it doesn't have the same ring to it.
You mentioned a conference in September in some post: is that the Bahia Blanca FAAPI? Have we met?
Hi Mariel
I'm glad you enjoyed my blog -that's what it's there for, after all :)
I'm on those courses so it seems we're classmates. It's been a hard week to get to keep up and I enjoyed reading intros, but sometimes it was hard to put names and faces to contributions. How are you liking the courses?
Thanks for the translation -it sounds better, but yes, I think there must be some cultural issue involved. We had a big literacy campaign decades ago in Argentina with the aim of helping people coming from oral tradition cultures to acquire basic reading and writing skills in order to be able to become a part of a bigger community (sort of what we're trying to do now with technology).Anyway, I think that's why the term has stuck so firmly to those skills in Spanish.
I don't think we've met. I was at LABCI09 in September. I've actually never been to FAAPI before but heard great things.
I'm enjoying both courses very much. I had taken Multiliteracies last year and came close to a nervous breakdown, but now I can take it easy - a little, not too much - and see what I can do. DMPT is really interesting too, and John is a highly committed tutor.
Looking forward to your posts.
Mariel
I agree about DMPT and John. And it's such a relief to hear that about evomlit!! I'm enjoying it, but last week was particulary hard to follow.
Hope the heat's not treating you too bad :)
Post a Comment