I listened to several of the sounds at the various sites linked to our course website. What I noticed as I listened to the sounds -- like the subway in New York or birds in a rain forest -- was that I put pictures to each of the sounds -- not words, but pictures. Both articles assigned treat sound as an integral part of our experience as humans, yet acknowledge that it is not paid much attention to.
The Selfe piece especially caught my attention. On page 21 she writes about "richly textured websites" that house everything, including video, audio, photographic essays. It seems that the audio and photographic essay has a close link. If an audio file has the ability to create a kind of photographic essay in the mind of the listener, how might a composition instructor use this connection? I've been thinking about this question for a couple of days now; my mind has lighted and stuck on some ideas that are really only tangential, but that I want to explore in this blog.
- What technology does the typical DACC student have access to to produce audio files? Photographic essays? What would the value be? Selfe -- I think -- makes an implicit argument that a writing teacher should use sound for sounds sake, not only as a way to teach writing. So the value might be to see the way argument is built into sound and sight, as well as text.
- If the typical computer lab that a DACC student takes a writing class in does not have access to programs like Garage Band, or even Audacity, are the partnerships that might be formed with other programs to provide this access? I'm thinking of the CMT program... Maybe Rebecca Kongs would schedule a section of ENGL 111 specifically for her CMT majors in one of her Mac labs...
- If this access were secured, which would be most powerful for students to produce? An audio essay or a photographic essay? If there were students in a writing class, it seems like I would have to connect the essay to the writing process and concepts of argumentation.
- Could I create an audio essay? Or a photographic essay? Or a video that could be posted on YouTube that would a) help me practice this form of expression; and b) help me teach students how to use the technology? Who would help me learn the technology? My sons?
- Selfe seems to argue that projects which acknowledge the sounds of the students gives students who are not academic natives a voice. Could I really achieve this lofty goal by including sound in the composition classroom?
- If sound is so important, maybe I should once again try audio assessments of essays. Would that be a more effective way of assessing student learning than typing comments into the margins of papers? Comments which are often not read? I tried this years ago with tape players, but the fact that students had to find a taperecorder to listen to my comments became impractical... But I wonder about audio files. I use Audacity to deliver audio messages to my students in the online classes I teach, and they respond well to those... Why not audio assessments? I even wonder if there is some research that might come out of something like that -- especially given that my research interests include meaningful assessment.
- Selfe talks about using the composition class as a place to practice different literacies. I like the ideas of thinking about interacting with sounds (I wrote "reading" sounds and then deleted that...) as a kind of literacy. I especially like her argument that composition teachers should be helping students find more than one tool to help them communicate effectively. It seems clear that using sound could -- maybe should -- be one of those tools...
3 comments:
I too found myself putting pictures to the sounds provided on the websites. Moreover, I found that the images I associated with the sounds were processed through language. This undoubtedly raises more questions than the answers it may provide. I would never say that it anchors me strictly to positivism, but it does make a stronger case for linguistically constructed realities.
I really like your idea of "reading sounds" as a type of literacy. I do think that gets at the heart of sound and it's role in composition - and life for that matter. It is such a large part of our social environment, particulalry, and should be viewed as a literacy...
The thoughts and questions you posed in this post were great. I love how you are considering the readings and activities in relation to your teaching context at DACC. You raise important points about access, practicality, and the learning of these literacies by instructors. I also think that the use of audio feedback to students has interesting potential (maybe more students would actually pay attention to all those suggestions we have for their work). Lastly, I agree with the idea that the composition classroom (and most classrooms related to the teaching of communication) should be a place to explore these multiple literacies and to help students use the ones that make the most sense for the meaning they are trying to express.
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