Embodiment and New Literacies

Can't resist a rudimentary attempt at adding visual text

Tonight's class in my reading endorsement course on teaching comprehension was on new literacies--understanding and guiding children's critical comprehension skills in reading the Internet, IM, blogs, Wiki, multi-player games, social networking, and so much more. The idea is that these are relevant, maybe even more relevant than traditional texts and modes of learning, for today's kids. You can debate the idea of whether traditional texts are on their way out and if this is good or bad, but unless the Apocalypse wipes out all methods for transmitting information electronically, I see pivotal value in learning to make one's way through the cyber jungle with some critical thinking skills in hand. This was the first time I'd heard the term Web 2.0 my head is reeling both with wonder and weariness. Here I am somewhere between a luddite and whatever we call these tech savvy kids today. I thought I'd hit the mother lode when I learned the formula to create a hyperlink in my blog. My text dense, image-thirsty, ready-made template blog. But I can learn, as my recent toe-dipping into HTML proves.


Well, if you're an old-schooler, trained in the slower process of reading through thick paragraphs of words, read on. I'll work on brevity and design later. My thoughts veer a bit from wondering what will be a better text product to connecting all this new literacies stuff to where my thoughts naturally flow on an exhaustive Thursday evening: tomorrow's yoga class. On the one hand there's all this thought happening in cyberspace, traveling the speed of light; on the other, the body with all its earthy and comparatively slow ways, subjection to disease and decomposition. What does it mean to be human and embodied in these changing circumstances? 


In a sense we learn to read the body as literally as we read a text. It's a vehicle for meaning making. In yoga I learn to read the breath, what its ease or lack thereof signifies. I read levels of energy or fatigue, the sensations in the muscles, the structure and support of my skeletal system. Right now I'm reading the irritation on the surface of my eyes and a dull sense of ache right behind them as an indication that I've got too much going on (and don't know how to stop it). In meditation, it follows, one learns to read mind.  

So we have all this reading of bodies, minds, digital chatter, but what does it mean? If I have an inkling of Web 2.0, maybe it means recognizing one's self as the producer of the meaning rather than a Google-searching Web 1.0 consumer. May we be a bit discerning, wise and compassionate even, as we create these new texts.